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ecession, antr its Causes, 



A LETTER 



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VISCOUiNT PALMERSTON, K.G., 



PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND. 



BY 



HENRY Win OFF, 

Author of ''A Visit to Lou;i^ > »polkon at Ham," Etc. 



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J 
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>T Y YORK: 
PUBLISHF Y ROSS & TOUSEY, 

! LSSAIT STKEET. 

1861. 



is^^Sto 



CONTENTS. 



TMiC 

POUTICAL KeTIEW G 

Slaveut 14: 

"White Si.aveuy ix England 15 

Black Slaveuy in England 18 

Black Slavery in the United States 28 

Ccimmentaky 56 

Resolkces of the South 02 

Genehal View — 

Northern States 68 

Southern States 72 

Constitutional Amendmen ^ 74 

Amebican Pijess 78 



0(fCS0ion, antr its (Eouses, 

no 

IN 

A LETTER 



VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, E.G., 



PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND. 



BY 

HENRY WlkOFF, 

Author of " A Visit to Louis I^apoleon at Ham," Etc, 




• NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY ROSS & TOITSEY, 



121 NASSAU STREET. 
1861. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, 

By ROSS & TOUSEY, 

In the Clerk's Of&ce of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



Rennie, Shea A Lindsay, 

BTKBB0TTPKB8 AND ELBCrTBOTTPKEa, 

81, 88 * 85 CBNTRB-S'rtlKET, 

HHW TOEK 



PREFACE. 



This letter was originally intended for the private 
perusal of the Noble Lord to whom it is addressed; 
but it was suggested to me that its publication here 
might possibly be beneficial. In the hope, then, that 
it may be found in some degree interesting, if not 
useful, I do not hesitate to give it to the Public. 



HENKY WIKOFF. 



Brevoort House, 
New York, January 28, 1861 



\ 



"The science of government is merely a science of combinations, of 
applications, and of exceptions, according to time, place, and circum- 
stances." — RoussEAtr. 

"The surest way to prevent seditions, if the times do bear it, is to take 
away the matter of them ; for if there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell 
whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire."— Lord Bacon. 

" Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but 
temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things." — 
Seneca. 



TO 



VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, E.G., 



&c., &c., &c. 



My Lord, 

Just ten years since, jour Lordship was at the head of the 
Foreign Office of England. A war of parties then raged in 
France which threatened to end in anarchy. The interests of 
England, so closely identified with France, required that every 
phase of the conflict should be known to your Lordship. I was 
at that moment a watchful but dispassionate observer of these 
events, and had the honor to furnish your Lordship officially 
with such information as my opportunities, somewhat rare, 
enabled me to acquire. 

At the present hour, your Lordship occupies a still more illus- 
trious post — the Premiership of England. A fierce contest of 
sections has broken out in this country, which foreshadows 
disruption and ruin. Again, the interests of England, still more 
closely interwoven with the United States, demand that every 
feature of this internecine strife should be familiar to your Lord- 
ship. A calm, but not unconcerned spectator of the turmoil, I 
venture, though no longer a duty, to lay before your Lordship a 
simple outline of this portentous crisis. It is all-important that 
the government and people of England should understand it, in 
order that the action of the one and the sentiments of the other 
should be wisely guided and judiciously formed. The task is 
onerous, and exacts higher capacity. A native of this coimtry,* 

* Born in Philadelphia, and a graduate of Yale College. 



6 LiriTKK TO LOUD PAI-MERSTOX. 

however, and familiur with its history and institutions, I am 
not wholly disqiuilitied. My knowledge of England will also 
enable nie to make intelligible what might otherwise be ob- 
scure, if, indeed, aught can elude the practical, searching analysis 
common to your Lordship. My respect for the lofty position of 
your Lordship, but still more for the intellect and character that 
adorn it, will compel me to be scrupulous in my facts and im- 
partial in my statements. With such data your Lordship will 
apply the test to my conclusions. 

Immersed in the politics of Europe, and for near half a cen- 
tury an occupant of office, your Lordship can only have glanced 
at this country, so far removed, when a question of moment 
required attention. Allow me, then, to pass in rapid review 
its domestic political history, which wall tend to elucidate the 
present situation. 

Political Review. 

The movement that threw off the rule of the mother country, 
began in the New England Colonies. These were settled by 
those Puritans who effected the Revolution of 1620, and 
decapitated Charles L The Southern Colonies were occupied 
by a more loyal class. To the noble family of Baltimore was 
grajited, by Royal Charter, the province of Maryland. To other 
staunch adherents of the crown w^ere accorded grants and 
privileges in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. 

With antecedents so opposite, both North and South joined 
heartily in the AVar of Lidependence, making equal sacrifices 
and dividing fairly its triumphs. In 1781, the struggling States 
formed a Confederation, and essayed self-government. The 
first experiment failed, when the present Union was established. 
Tlie written Charter of 1789 followed the form and usages of 
the British Constitution. Supreme power was divided between 
the executive and legislative branches; but all were elective. 
The executive power was vested in one 2)erson for a term of 
four years, with sj)ecial duties assigned. The Legislature was 
divided, as in England, into two Houses, with separate prerog- 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 7 

atives. All power not positively delegated to tliis Federal 
Government was reserved to the States. The problem of 
popular government was once more undertaken. 

Gen. "Washington was the first Federal magistrate, chosen 
from a list of twelve candidates. 

Up to this period, the politicians of the country had, first, 
contended in a body against the supremacy of the mother 
country ; and, next, had united their energies in the structure 
of a Republican Constitution. 

During President Washington's term, they divided into two 
hostile parties, each striving for ofiice through the profession 
of opposite principles. The New England States, led by John 
x\dams, advocated the power of the Federal Government, even 
to straining the Constitution. This was the Federal party. 
The Southern States, led by Thomas Jefferson, maintained 
State rights against Federal encroachment. This was the 
Democratic party. 

In 1797, John Adams, of Massachusetts, was elected* Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy. During his term, the Alienf and Sedi- 
tion:}: laws were passed by the Federal Congress. These enact- 
ments were opposed by the statesmen of the South, since, in their 
opinion, they invested the Executive with powers not conferred 
by tlie Constitution and inimical to popular rights. The crea- 
tion of a National Bank was also a subject of keen controversy. 
The public men of the North sustained it with energy, while 
those of the South opposed it as unconstitutional and of doubt- 
ful expediency. 

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was elected Presi- 
dent. During this term the New England States displayed a 
bitter animosity to the South, which arose, chiefly, from the 
South having put a limit to the slave-trade, in which these 

* The election for President takes place four months before his inauguration, but 
I shall use the words sinonymously. 

t By the Alien law, June, 1800, the President might order all such aliens as he 
deemed dangerous to quit the country, on pain of three years' imprisonment and civil 
disability. 

X By the Sedition law, any person who should libel the President, or either House 
of Ccngrcss, should be fined $2,000, and be imprisoned for two years. 



A 



y LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

States were proiitablj engaged. When, therefore, President 
Jefferson proposed the purchase of Louisiana from France, the 
Eastern States violently resisted, because it increased the terri- 
tory and power of the South. Congress empowered the pur- 
chase, April, 1803. 

In 1805, Thomas Jefferson was re-elected to the Presidency. 
His second term was troubled by the war between England 
and France. The Berlin and Milan Decrees of Napoleon, and 
the Orders in Conncil of the British Government, equally 
assailed American interests. Our vessels, bound either to 
English or French ports, incurred capture and confiscation. 
Tliis left but one alternative, either to abandon our trade with 
Euro])e, or go to war to protect it. To escape the latter. Pres- 
ident Jefferson recommended an Embargo Act, to put a tempo- 
rary stop to all our foreign trade. This was vehemently 
opposed by the 'New England States, because their interests, 
being chiefly commercial, were seriously damaged. The Em- 
bargo Act was passed by Congress in December, 1807 ; where- 
upon the Eastern States threatened to secede from the Union, 
and form a Northern Confedera<?y. 

In 1809, James Madison, of Virginia, was elected President. 
Soon after his accession, March, 1809, the Embargo Act was 
repealed, to appease the New England States ; and a less strin- 
gent law, the Non-Intercourse Act, was passed by Congress, 
May, 1809, which prohibited trade with England and France. 
New England, however, carried on an indirect trade with 
Europe, through Canada. In spite of all these precautions by 
the Government, our interests and dignity were incessantly 
outraged by England. Finally, the indignation of the country 
compelled Congress to declare war. May, 1812. 

lu 1813, James Madison was re-elected President. During 
the war, the Government was supported by direct taxes and 
requisitions upon the States ; but the New Enghmd States re- 
fused, for the most part, to contribute.* The war closed, Jan- 
uary, 1815. To resuscitate the Federal treasury, a new financial 
policy was inaugurated. A Tariff of high duties was passed by 

* Niles' Kegister. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 9 

Congress, April, 1816. New England advocated this law, 
because, during the war, she had transferred her capital from 
commerce to manufactures, for which she desired protection. 
The South was injured by the Tariff, but she supported it from 
patriotic motives. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, went 
so far as to introduce a ininimum rate for ad valorem duties, 
that is, a rate below which the duties should not fall.* A new 
National Bank act was also passed, April, 1816; the old one 
having expired in 1811. 

In 1817, James Monroe, of Virginia, was elected President. 
During this term tlie interests of the country prospered. No 
struggle occurred between the politicians of New England and 
the South till 1820, when Missouri applied for admission into 
the Union as a Slave State. The Eastern States opposed it 
violently, on the ground of extending slavery. The Union was 
in danger of dissolution, when, finally, Missouri was admitted 
by Congress as a Slave State, on the compromise that thereafter 
no Slave States should be created north of 36° 30' parallel of 
latitude. 

In 1821, James Monroe was re-elected President. During 
this term, a new conflict arose between the politicians of New 
England and those of the South, on the subject of the Tariff 
policy inaugurated at the peace. New England demanded 
more protection for her manufactures. This the South opposed, 
on the ground that her manufactures had protection enough, 
and next, because an increase of the Tariff was seriously detri- 
mental to the interests of the South. 

In 1825, John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, was elected 
President.f During this term, a heated contest was carried on 
between New England and the South, on the Tariff policy. In 
1828, a new act was passed by Congress, which raised the 
duties to an almost prohibitory standard. The average was 
40 per cent, on imports. The South designated this act as the 
"Black Tariff." 

*• At the instance of Mr. Lowell, the fother of manufactures in Massachusetts, 
t This election was made by the House of Eepresentatives, as provided in the 
Constitution, in default of an election by the people. 




10 LP:rrER to lord palmekston. 

In 1829, Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, became President. 
During this term, the extreme Tariff policy of New England 
led to violent remonstrance in South Carolina, whose interests 
were seriou.^ly injured. She alleged that a policy to enricli 
one section of the country at the expense of another, was unjust 
and unconstitutional. She threatened to resist this policy by 
force. A compromise was effected, March, 1833, by which the 
obnoxious Tariff was modified by Congress. 

In 1833, Andrew Jackson was re-elected President. During 
this term, an acrimonious struggle was carried on between the 
politicians of the North* and South, on the National Bank cre- 
ated at the peace. The former maintained it was necessary to 
their trade and commerce ; the latter, while denying its consti- 
tutionality and expediency, also avowed their fears of its be- 
coming a political machine, that might, in the hands of unscru- 
pulous politicians, do much harm. The charter was allowed 
to expire in 1836. A policy known under the name of " In- 
ternal Improvements," was also discussed in this term. It had 
the support of the North, but the South opposed it as favoring 
one section at the cost of the others. 

In 1837, Martin Yan Buren, of New York, was elected 
President. During this term, great financial disorder prevailed 
in the country. The Northern politicians proposed, as a pana- 
cea, a new National Bank, a higher Tariff, and a Bankrupt Law. 
The South opposed them all, as unnecessary and sectional in 
their tendency. 

In 1811, William Henry Harrison, of Oliio, was elected 
President. He died soon after his accession to office. Tlie 
Presidency was then administered by the Yice-president, John 
Tyler, of Yirginia, as provided by tlie Constitution. During 
this term, Northern policy mostly prevailed. The Tariff was 
augmented, September, ISll, and August, 1842. A Bankrupt 
Law was passed, August, 1841 .+ A law was carried through 
Congress, July, 1841, dividing the jmblic doniaiii among tlio 

* Tlio Northern Politicians dropped tho title of" Federalist" in 1824, and assmncd 
that of " Whig" in 182S. 

t By this act, private del>ts to the amount of 440 millions of dollars • SS Miillions 
sterling) were cancelled. 



LlilTKR TO LOKD PALMERSTON. ^ 

respective States, in proportion to their population. The effect 
of this was favorable to the manufacturing States of New Eng- 
land ; for, by cutting off from the Federal treasury the receipts 
from the public lands, it made a higher Tariff imperative, to 
insure a sufficient revenue. The new bank charter failed. At 
the end of eighteen inonths, the Bankrupt Act was repealed, 
1843. A new Slave State, Texas, was admitted to the Union, 
March 3, 1845. The act for dividing the public lands was 
repealed, January, 1842, as it was found necessary to retain 
them as security for Federal loans. 

In 1845, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was inaugurated 
President. During his term, the Tariff, which was pressing 
heavily on the interests of the South, was modified, July, 1846. 
The President, in a special message to Congress, May, 1846, 
announced that the Government of Mexico had committed an 
act of war against the Confederacy. On this occasion, all sec- 
tions of the country. North and South and West, united in 
declaring war against Mexico. The war closed, February, 1 b48. 
The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, wliich followed, ceded Cali- 
fornia and JSTew Mexico to the United States. 

In 1849, Zachary Taylor, of Mississipj^i, became President. 
During this term, the old issues between the politicians of the 
North and South were abandoned, to wit : the Tariff policy, a 
National Bank, a system of Internal Improvements, a Division 
of the Public Lands. The recent acquisitions of territory, how- 
ever, afforded the public men of both sections a fertile field of 
discussion. The North contended against admitting slavery 
into the new territory. The South declared that its right to 
joint occupation was incontestable, both in law and equity, 
and proposed that the compromise of 1820 should be renewed, 
by extending the Missouri line of 36° 30' to the Pacific Ocean. 
This the politicians of the North refused. The controversy 
became so violent that a separation of the North and South 
seemed imminent. A compromise, how^ever, took place in 
1850, which stopped the discussion, but did not settle the 
main point in dispute, namely, the right of the South to joint 
occupation of all new territor3\ 




12 LKrrKR TO LORD I'Ar.MFKSTOX. 

In 1853, Franklin Pierce, of New Ilampsliire, became Pres- 
ident. During this term, the discussion on slavery was unfor- 
tunately renewed. A portion of western territory, named 
Nebraska,* was divided iiiti> two territories. One of these 
Avas called Kansas, and the other Nebraska. The coTiipromise 
line of 3G°30' ran to the south of these territories, which would 
have given Kansas as well as Nebraska, the largest, to the North. 
On he proposition of the senatoi- from Illinois, Stephen A. 
Douglas, the compromise line was repealed by Congress. An 
effort was subsequently made by the South to occupy Kansas, 
in order to make it a Slave State. This the North determined 
to resist. Emigrant societies were established in Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, in 1854, to furnish pecuniary aid to settlers in 
Kansas. In consequence, a hostile population from North and 
South poured into Kansas, whose interests and sentiments were 
antagonistic and irreconcilable. Civil dissensions of great bit- 
terness, at length, terminated in conflict. Bands of armed men 
from the North and South paraded the territory, and frequently 
came in collision, with loss of life. The Federal Government, 
whose jurisdiction extended over this distant country, wns 
finall}^ forced to interfere. The leaders of the anti-slavery 
propaganda, having violated the Federal prerogative by passing 
a constitutionf and electing a governor, were indicted for 
treason, and obliged to take to flight.:}: 

In 1857, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was inaugurated 
President. The whole of this term has been disturbed by a 
heated contest between the politicians of the North and South, 
on the subject of slavery in the territories. The civil troubles 
in Kansas were renewed by the leaders of the pro-slaveiy party 
drafting a constitution! favorable to their views, which Con- 
gress refused to ratify. It follows that Kansas, though quali- 
fied by population to become a State, still remains a territory, 

* 1,800 miles from Washinu^ton. 

+ Called the Tnpeka Constitution, after the village where the Convention met. 

t The Northern Politicians, during this term, dropped the appellation of " Whiop," 
and assumed that of " Republican," better known as "Black Eepublican." 

§ Called the Lecomptou Constitution, after the place where the Convention 
assembled. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. {?, 

a prey to the sectional animosities that divide her. Towards the 
close of this Presidency, the prolonged strife between the politi- 
cians of the North and South on the topic of slavery, was taken 
up by the people of these respective sections, in an election for a 
new president, November, 1860. The Northern States, being in 
majority, pronounced in favor of Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 
the exponent of their sectional views. Under these circumstan- 
ces, tlie Southern States threaten to secede from the Union. They 
allege that the civil compact they made with the Northern 
States in 1789, guaranteeing equal rights to both, and equal 
protection to all, has been violated. They further allege that, 
being in a minority in the Confederacy, they can oppose no 
legal barrier to the anti-sla\'ery sentiments of the North, wliich, 
carried into legislation, will confiscate their property, and even 
involve their lives. 

RESUME. 

This closes, my Lord, the brief retrospect of our Federal his- 
tory. I trust it is lucid, as I believe it to be unbiased. It 
thus appears that, from the first Presidency to the last, the 
public men of the North and South have differed in their 
notions of policy. 

It also appears that these differences ran so high in the case 
of the Embargo Act, 1807, that the New England States, whose 
commercial interests were injured, were on the verge of seced- 
ing from the Confederacy. 

It likewise appears that the Southern States, to the detriment 
of their interests, voted for a Tariff and a Bank, 1816, in order 
to resuscitate the Federal Government and conciliate the East- 
ern States. 

It furthermore appears that the Southern States, finding 
themselves oppressed by the extreme Tariff policy of the North, 
threatened, through South Carolina, 1832, to nullify the Federal 
laws. 

It finally appears that the various points of national policy 
discussed by our public men of the North and South, having 



y"' 



14 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

been successively disposed of by the popular voice, the politi- 
cians of the North, in spite of compromises, thought fit to 
reopen the abstract question of slavery, in 1854. 

Slavery. 

I have already said, my Lord, that the interests of England 
are so intimately blended with this country as to make our 
welfare a matter of the liveliest solicitude to her statesmen 
send peo]>le. Not only are m'c by far your best customers, but 
we are also the producers of that jDrecious staple, upon whose 
steady culture the commercial supremacy of England depends. 

I deem it, therefore, of paramount importance that your 
Lordship should fully understand the nature and extent of the 
agitation now shaking this country to its centre. It will be 
impossible to measure it by any thing that has occurred in Eng- 
land within your Lordship's experience. Fortunately for her, 
African Slavery never became identified with her social and 
political existence, as it has with us, and therefore it was an easy 
task for her public men to look calmly (.n the subject, and de- 
cide upon its fate by a vote of twenty millions sterling. If it 
were with us, my Lord, as it was with you, a simple financial 
question, it would be a short solution whether it was worth re- 
taining, or not. But it is far otherwise, as I will undertake to 
show. To make the Slave question in the United States, with all 
its complications, more properly appreciated by your Lordship, 
it will be necessary to go back to its origin, which belongs to our 
colonial epoch. This, however, is so intimately blended with 
the history of African Slavery in England, that your Lordship 
will suffer me, I trust, to venture on a brief sketch of the rise 
and growth of the Guinea trade. From this it will be seen at 
a glance, that mere calculations of profit led to the importation 
of the African into the American Colonies; and I think it may 
be as clearly perceived that self-interest, even more than hu- 
manity, had to do with the abandonment of the trafiic. 

If, then, it can be established, my Lord, that commercial 
motives, much more than a tardy philanthropy, efl'ected a rev- 



LETTER TO LORD PALMEESTON. 15 

olution of opinion in England on African Slavery ; then it may 
be inferred that the same invincible motives of self-interest will 
lead, at an early day, to a decided reaction on this subject. 

As a prelude to this history of African Slavery, it may be 
interesting to glance, for a moment, at the condition of the 
White Slave or Serf, in England, scarcely three centuries since. 

White Slavery iisr England. 

It may be a trite reflection, my Lord, but not an irrelevant 
one at this moment, to remark that the history of mankind is 
but a history of slavery, as regards the mass of the people ; 
and the absolute slavish condition of far the greater portion of 
the population of the world at the present day, manifests 
clearly enough, if not the tyrannical disposition of man, at 
least the striking mental inequality of different races and 
classes, which leads to the subjugation of the vast majority to 
the superior intelligence of the comparative few. The civiliza- 
tion of Europe, however, has established its supremacy over all 
others, by the gradual emancipation of the lower class from 
the most degraded slavery to equality before the law. 

It is a singular fact, allow me to add, that of all races of 
men, the Anglo-Saxon has raised himself from the lowest 
depths of servitude to the highest forms of civilization ; and 
to him belongs the exclusive distinction and vast renown of 
being the pioneer of civil liberty. His robust body, industri- 
ous character, and vigorous intellect seem to have fitted him 
especially for the task of his physical and political redemption ; 
and these peculiar traits have lost nothing of their original excel- 
lence amid the luxuries of the civilization he has mainly created. 

The origin of English serfdom may be fairly dated from the 
subjugation of ancient Britain by Caesar, just previous to the 
Christian era, who found it an easy task, with his well-trained 
hosts, to reduce a warlike but savage people to an abject state 
of bondage. Nor was the enterprise more difficult for the free 
and martial Saxons, just four centuries later, to expel the 
remains of Koman power, and establish, on a permanent foun- 



16 LKTTKR TO LuKD PALMER8T0N. 

dation, their own rude forms of government. During the whole 
peri(jd of the Heptarchy, some four centuries more, the de- 
o-radcd inhabitants of Britain remained in the same condition 
• of unmitigated servitude. The slave or villein born on the 
land of the lords, was attached to it and sold with it. These 
wore iron colhirs on their necks, inscribed with the name of 
the owner. To this category of rural slaves, nmst be added 
the hirge numbers enslaved in civil feuds, as well as those sold 
by their parents as a means of subsistence. In the seventh 
century, some Northumbrian slaves were sent to Rome for 
sale by a speculator, and when exhibited in the slave market, 
attracted, by their noble appearance and athletic frames, the 
admiration of Pope Gregory, who sent Augustine, with a suite 
of missionaries, to convert so striking a people to Christianity. 
At the date of the Conquest, 1066, the English Slave Trade 
■was very general and active. Ireland, at that time, was the 
chief market for export, but the various cities of Europe also 
kept up a brisk demand. Tlie Doomsday Book, prepared by 
order of the Conqueror, affords abundant indications of the 
condition of slavery at this epoch, and of the activity of the 
domestic Slave Trade. There was a tax imposed at this period 
by all the cities, as a source of revenue, of four pennies on 
every slave sold. No female slave was allowed to marry 
without the consent of the owner. The child of a female slave 
was also a slave. A freeman who married a slave, reduced 
himself to her condition ; and all slaves were sold and treated 
like other property. There seems never to have been a law, 
my Lord, to authorize the holding of slaves. It appears always 
to have been regarded as a natural right. All the laws that 
have ever been enacted- on the subject, were to emancipate. 
In A. D. 1102, the Council of Westminster made laws, or can- 
ons, against the export of slaves, but with little effect, since 
the Trade still continued active for a century later. The mer- 
chants of Bristol, in order to keep up their supplies, were in 
the habit of buying children of their parents or of kidnappers. 
The first serious check the foreign trade received, was in a 
resolution of the Irish, in 1172, to set free their slaves, and to 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 17 

buy no more at any price. The export of Englisli slaves lan- 
guished from this period, and finally ceased. The domestic 
trade, however, continued active. In 1195, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury gave ten slaves to the Prior of Eochester, as part 
of the price of the manor of Lambeth, where his Grace's palace 
stands at the present day. 

The rio;ht to buy and sell slaves continued centuries later, 
although the trade itself slowly declined. The class of slaves 
attached to the soil, called natives^ were transferable with it, 
but were occasionally emancipated on various conditions, 
sometimes as rewards, yet more frequently for sums of money. 
In 1338, King Edward sold freedom to many slaves, to raise 
money. In 1381, the insurrection of Wat Tyler, momentarily 
successful, extorted a charter of freedom from Edward III. for 
all slaves ; but this was almost immediately revoked, and the 
slaves forced to return to their former condition. The thirst 
for emancipation began to increase steadily, and constant sales 
of freedom to bondsmen were taking place. The value of 
slaves, however, continued high, which is corroborated by an 
incident that happened in Kent. A certain Simon Burley 
there demanded no less than 300 lbs. of silver as the price of 
freedom for one of his slaves. Tliis was thought exorbitant, 
and the seizure of the man by his master to remove him to an- 
other county, was resisted by the populace, and an insurrection 
ensued. Following the tendency of the epoch, emancipations 
became more and more frequent. In 1514, Henry YIIL, to 
supply his exchequer, sold freedom to two of his slaves, viz. : 
to Henry Knight, a tailor, and to John Erie, of the county of 
Cornwall. This act of manumission begins, " Whereas, origi- 
nally God created all men free," &c. These are nearly the 
words used in our own Declaration of Independence, upwards 
of two centuries later. The process of manumission went rap- 
idly on, and when, in 1571:, Queen Elizabeth commissioned 
Lord Burghley and her Chancellor, Sir Walter Mildmay, to 
compound with the serfs upon her manors for their freedom, 
it may be said that the slavery of the lower classes of England 
had well-nigh reached its extinction. Tlius it may be seen, 



IS Li:ni;ii to loud I'almkkston. 

that the Anglo-Saxon race did not remain, like the African, 
for countless ages in a savage state, free, but ^vithout progress. 
On the contrary, it emerged from the lowest condition of 
villeinage, and asserted its intellectual and moral vigor by 
breaking through all the heavy trammels that surrounded it. 
Xor did its energies expire with the successful struggle for 
emancipation, and relapse, like the African, into barbaric 
slotli ; but it has gone on, through every phase of development, 
till its power and knowledge has encircled the globe. 1 trust 
your Lordship will regard with leniency this somewhat stale 
reiteration of familiar facts, but I thought their repetition, at 
this particular juncture, was appropriate, and would add, by 
contrast, not a little interest to the significant history of African 
Slavery in England that I now propose very briefly to venture 
on. 

RfiSUMil. 

Anciently, all English labor was enslaved. 

Emancipation grew as free labor was found more profitable 
than slave labor. 

The mental energy of the people forced emancipation, and 
this in spite of ages of prior servitude. 

The national productions, capital, and power increased with 
the progress of emancipation. 

The emancipation was gradual through centuries, causing no 
shock to society. 



Black Slavery nsr England. 

Tlie last phase of African Slavery in the British Dominions, 
must still be familiar to your Lordship ; for it was the Cabinet 
of Earl Grey, of which your Lordship was the Foreign Secre- 
tary, that brought in the Act of Emancipation in May, 1S33. 
Its introduction, however, into the British Colonies is so remote, 
and the details of its history so seldom recalled, that your 
Lordship can hardly be supposed to bear either in recollection, 



LETTEK TO LORD PALMERSTON. 



19 



amid the more weighty matters pressing on your attention. As 
it is necessary to my purpose, may I be permitted, in as brief a 
digest as possible, to glance over the striking, and, to our pres- 
ent tastes, really shocking incidents connected with the African 
Trade ? 

It is very singular, my Lord, that almost at the same mo- 
ment the last traces of serfdom were disappearing from Eng- 
land, the enslavement of another and distant race should spring 
up. Such, however, is the fact; for it was in 1561 that Sh- 
John Hawkins fitted out three small vessels, of from forty to 
sixty tons each, with which, laden with English merchandise, 
he sailed for the Guinea Coast, where he exchanged his wares 
for a cargo of Negroes, that he carried thence to Hispauiola, 
and sold them for hides, sugar, and ginger, with which he 
returned to England. This was the humble commencement of 
the trade in African Blacks that was carried on by England, 
with immense profits, for the long period of two hundred and 
forty-six years. The success of Hawkins' adventure seems to 
have had the same effect on that day, as the gold discoveries 
on the present. The Continent of Africa was speedily reported 
to be filled with Blacks, to be had for the mere catching ; and 
that they could be sold at great advantage in the West Indies. 
Expeditions were fitted out rapidly one after another, and 
British enterprise and capital were soon actively employed in 
prosecuting this lucrative trafiic. In 1689, the British Gov- 
ernment entered into a convention with Spain, by which she 
agreed to provide her West India dependencies with African 
slaves. In 1713, the celebrated "South Sea Company," of 
London, also undertook, by convention, to supply Spain with 
black slaves ; and these were regularly furnished, at the rate 
of 4,800 per annum, for thirty years. The trade grew apace, 
and finally took such proportions that Gen. O'Hara, Governor 
of Senegambia, reported, in 1760, that in the " previous fifty 
years, no less than 70,000 Blacks had been deported per annum 
from that country alone." Tliis makes an aggregate of 
3,500,000, a very startling number, certainly, for that age. 
Your Lordship will remember that the British West Indies were 



20 LETfER TO LOKD PALMKK8TON. 

the chief destination of these Blacks, and that Jamaica con- 
tinued the principal depot during the eighteenth century. In 
the "-radual development of this vast commerce, there were 
three great Interests that especially prospered : First, the Man- 
ufacturers who supplied the goods for the African trade; next, 
the Sliipping -which conducted it ; and last, but not least, the 
Merchants of London, Bristol, and Liverpool, who carried 
't on. 

The Planters in the Colonies profited greatly by the supply 
of labor, but, at length, they became alarmed at the extraordi- 
nary influx of the Blacks, who began greatly to outnumber the 
Whites. The diinger that was naturally ap])rehended from this 
source induced the Colonial authorities, finally, to impose such 
a tax (£10 per head) as they supposed would check the evil. 
Tliis immediately drew forth an energetic remonstrance from 
the Manufacturers, Shippers, and Merchants, to the Imperial 
Parliament, in 177-i, against the duty in question. The Colo- 
nial agent in London, however, earnestly represented the ne- 
cessity of putting some restraint on the trade. The Colony of 
Virginia, at the same time, also sent up to Parliament similar 
representations as to their case. The Government, however, 
considered it the most profitable policy to favor the interests 
of the Slave Merchants and Shippers, and therefore decided 
against any interference with them. The colonial duty of £10 
was abrogated, and the Trade was consequently prosecuted 
with renewed vigor. 

It was about this period that the political connection between 
the mother country and her American colonies was broken off, 
and one of the first uses made of their new independence by 
the Southern States, was the attempt to put a stop to the 
African Slave Trade, in order to check the increase of Blacks. 
After great effort, the Southern States succeeded in obtaining 
the consent of the New England States to give up the slave 
tratfic in 180S. It was likewise at this period the recently 
emancipated people of France declared, in the height of their 
revolutionary fervor, that all classes and races of men were 
free and equal; and the frightful massacres of St. Domingo 



LETTEK TO LORD PALMERSTON. 21 

were tlie early result of the application of sueli ideas to the 
Blacks. 

Your Lordship will please to bear in mind, that while these 
events were transpiring in America and France, a new doctrine 
of the equality of the Black and White began to be broached 
in England. The first apostle of this novel opinion was Mr. 
Wilberforce, and in 1788, a year after the United States Con- 
stitution had prospectively abolished the Slave Trade, he gave 
notice in Parliament that he intended to bring in a Bill rela- 
tive to the Slave Trade. On this occasion, the leaders on both 
sides of the House, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, favored the move- 
ment. Li the February following, the Privy Council ordered 
a Committee to inquire into the state of the Trade, and a long 
and interesting report was made. Among the evidence pro- 
duced, was a letter to Lord Hawkesbury, from Mr. Gustavus 
Vassa, Commissary of the African Settlement, that contained 
a declaration which, beyond all doubt, was the germ of that 
change of opinion in England against Black Slavery which 
soon after set in. He stated that, in his opinion, if the Slave 
Trade were abolished,- Afi-ica would soon become a market for 
British manufactures superior to all Europe. " If the Blacks," 
to use his own language, " are permitted to remain in their own 
country, they will double in every fifteen years, and in propor- 
tion to such increase will be the demand for British goods." 
There was more evidence of the same character, and the new 
school of Wilberforce readily laid hold of such arguments to 
induce the manufacturers and merchants to give up the Trade. 
On the other hand, emphatic evidence was adduced, on high 
authority, that went to show the Africans were nothing but 
irreclaimable barbarians, incapable of civilization ; with no 
idea of landed property, and cursed with an incurable indo- 
lence. The Government, fearing to disturb an old and profita- 
ble commerce, after deliberation, adopted the latter view, and 
again encouraged the Trade by new regulations. The law 
passed, as your Lordship may recollect, in 1799 (twelve years 
after our Constitution had abolished the Trade), was of such a 
nature that it might be properly qualified as the " Slave Trade 



22 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 



Charter," but, in fact, it was entitled an act " To regulate the 
carrying of Slaves in British vessels from the west coast of 
Africa to the West Indies." Among the regulations of this new 
statute, was one, doubtless in the interests of humanity, to the 
effect that each slave vessel should have painted conspicuously 
on her stern the words, " Allowed to carry Slaves." But there 
was another provision, much more striking, and it ran thus : — 
" No loss by mortality of Slaves, whether natural, or the con- 
sequence of ill-treatment, or Jjy tlirovnng them overhoard, shall 
be recoverable by any Policy of Insurance." The " throwing 
overboard," thus gravely recognized as a legal right, had, dur- 
ing a century and a half, been so customary that the Insurance 
Companies were heavy losers ; and to protect thein against 
these frauds, the present clause was enacted, which forbid the 
owners to recover. 

It is scarcely credible that, in your Lordship's lifetime, such 
a state of things as this could have existed in any civilized 
country, or that such horriljle barbarity could have been 
regarded by the Government and people of England with utter 
indifference. But it was likewise at this period, it must be re- 
membered, that the death-penalty was so liberally distributed 
by the laws of England, that every petty thief was quickly 
transported from the prison to Tyburn. This sanguinary spirit 
was, doubtless, a relic of those bloody civil Avars that had so 
often desolated fair England. From, these excesses a reaction 
was natural ; and such extraordinary strides have been made 
in the last fifty years towards a higher humanity, that we Und 
at the present day, in London, a " Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals," and frequent prosecutions are instituted, 
in its name, against the ill-treatment of cats and dogs. Would 
that some such institution had existed only fifty years ago, 
when its energies might have been humanely directed against 
the owners of slaves for " throwing them overboard" at sea ; 
but they would have intrenched themselves, no doubt, behind 
the sanction of Parliament, which only forbid them recovering 
any compensation for doing so. Tinily, my Lord, when these 
two epochs are contrasted, and both within the same century 



LETTER TO LOKD PALMEKSTON. 



23 



and the same country, the notion is ahnost i'orced upon ns that 
cruelty and humauitj^, brutality and refinement, are little else 
than fashions of the day, which come in and go out pretty 
much as interest or fancy may dictate. 

This was the condition of the British Slave Trade when this 
century opened. But the Planters in the Colonies resolutely 
continued their opposition to it ; and the Abolitionists, led by 
Mr. Wilberforce, were actively representing to the Manufac- 
turing and Mercantile interests the large market that would 
certainly spring up in Africa on the cessation of the Trade, 
which the United States and France had already abolished. 
The combination of Planters and Abolitionists, reinforced tar- 
dily by the Manufacturers, were at length sufficient, with the 
example set by other countries, to induce the British Govern- 
ment, not long before your Lordship, if I remember, entered 
office, to abolish the Slave Trade in 1807. Thus, after two 
hundred and forty-six years of uninterrupted activity,* the 
Trade was brought to an end. 

"With your Lordship's leave, I will copy from Parliamentary 
Keports some brief account of the Trade in its days of pros- 
perity. Duriug the eighteenth century there were imported, 
according to official returns, 1,128,400 Blacks into Jamaica ; 
and at the close of the century there were but 350,000 Blacks 
on the Island. The value put on the Negroes, by the reports, 
was £30, or $150, per head. Under the industry of these 
Blacks, the Exports of the Island, towards the close of the 
century, amounted to £5,100,000, or 27 millions of dollars per 
annum. The Island itself was valued at twelve years' pur- 
chase, say £64,800,000. The working capacity of a Negro 
during his service was estimated at 8 times his cost ; or, in 
other words, the average product of a hand during his life 
was £210, or $1200. The number of Blacks carried to all the 
British West Indies, up to the close of the eighteenth century, 
'was calculated at 2,728,400. The cost of these, at the 
average, would be £81,852,000, and their aggregate production 
£654,816,000, or $3,274,080,000 ! Of this vast sum, little or 
nothing remained on the Island where it was produced. The 



24 I.KTTER TO Lord I'ALMKIiSIXjN. 

Blacks, tliat were obtained on the Coast in exchange for Lan- 
cashire goods, were " worked up" into sugar, coffee, rum, &c., 
which were sent to the owners in London and Bristol. 

After the Abolition of tlie Trade, the West Lidia Planters 
discovered that to keep up production required a regular 
foreign supply of labor, for the natural increase of the Blacks 
did not answer their anticipations. Not long after this, the 
followers of ^Ir. Wilberforce began to agitate a new theorv — 
the enumcipation of the Blacks in the West Lidies. They 
endeavored to enlist in their support the Manufacturing and 
Shipping interests, by representing, first, that free Blacks 
M'ould ])rodiicc more than Slaves; and next, they would con- 
sume a larger amount of British goods. Such results would, 
theref)re, give more employment to British vessels, it was 
argued, than the Slave Trade had ever done. In this way the 
Wilberforce Party gradually won over to their untried theories 
the Manufacturing and Commercial interests. 

They next turned their attention to winning proselytes in 
other classes of the community. Constant and skilful appeals 
were made to the religious and moral sentiments of tlie English 
people, and immense numbers of tracts were circulated. Works 
of tiction were frequently composed to inflame the public 
mind, and at length the Pulpit took up the theme. Numerous 
Societies were formed to hasten on the Emancipation of the 
Blacks in the West Indies ; but soon this new-born philanthropy 
took a wider field. Branches of these Societies were estab- 
lished in other countries, more especially in the United States. 
The Sunday-schools of New England were selected as the first 
lever for effecting the Emancipation of the Blacks in the 
Southern States. The leading minds of England began se- 
riously to entertain the theory, and I believe your Lordship 
and other prominent Statesmen were converts to it, that the 
free Black would work as well as the free White, and that 
what had bi-cn true of Serf labor in England might be equally 
true of Black labor everywhere. Hence it was inferred that 
the West Indies miglit become a thriving collection of free 
Black Colonies, and that the market for British goods (John 



LETTER TO LOKI) PALMERSTON. 25 

Bull never forgets profit in philanthropy) would soon exceed all 
anticipation. It was thought that if the United States could 
be brought to entertain the same conviction, our Southern 
States would ere long be converted into a great free Black 
cotton-growing country, .whose alliance with England w^ould 
be all the closer from identity of interest and policy. But if 
it should turn out otherwise, it was argued by the zealots of 
that day, and the Northern States should adopt the new British 
view of Emancipation, while the Southern States refused to 
try the experiment, why, the worst that could happen would 
be the dissolution of the Confederacy, which would relieve 
England and Europe from any further dread of the Great 
Republic. 

Opinions so plausible as these soon took deep root in the 
public mind, and the cause of manumission made rapid 
strides. On May 15, 1823, Sir Fowel Buxton, the colleague 
of Wilberforce, gave notice of a Bill to extinguish Slavery in 
the AVest Indies, and Parliament, at once, decided that meas- 
ures should be taken to ameliorate the moral condition of the 
Blacks, so as to prepare them for freedom. 

In a Circular of July 9, 1S23, Lord Bathurst communicated 
these resolutions of Parliament to the Colonists, and enjoined 
them to conform thereto. The intentions of the Government 
filled the Planters with alarm, and awoke the liveliest resist- 
ance. They declared their interests would not only be sacri- 
liced, but that the Colonies would be ruined, for they pro- 
nounced the theory of free Black labor a miserable delusion. 

These remonstrances were unheeded. As soon as the Blacks 
became aware of the designs of the Government, insurrections 
began to break out, and there was danger of the horrors of 
St. Domingo being renewed by a general massacre of the 
Whites. The Government, therefore, determined to press on 
its scheme of Emancipation. It began, in 1831, by decreeing 
the freedom of the Slaves on all the Crown lands, against the 
most energetic oj)position of the Planters. Finally, in May, 
1833, Lord Stanley brought m. the Bill for the abolition of 
Slavery. It was adopted by the Commons, June 12, 1833, and 



26 LETfER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. 

by the Lords on the 25th of the same month, receiving the 
sanction of the Crown, August 28, 1833. 

The Bill provided, that all slaves six years old at the date 
of August 1, 1834, should pass into tlie condition of Appren- 
tices of three classes : 1st, Rural laborers attached to the soil ; 
2d, Rural laborers unattached ; 3d, Laborers not rural. The 
first two classes were to serve as Apprentices for six years, and 
the last for four years. 

The number of slaves was found to be 780,933, and their 
value was taken to be the average of the sales from 1822 to 
1830, or £56 per head. The average working time of a Black 
was estimated at 8 years ; and it was calculated, by giving the 
Planter 4 and 6 years of his time, the Black paid four-sevenths 
of his value in labor. The remaining three-sevenths, or £25 
per head, it was proposed to pay in money, and for tliis pur- 
pose £20,000,000, or one hundred millions of dollars, was voted 
by Parliament. This well-intended combination, meant to 
please everybody, ended by pleasing none. The Black inur- 
mured, and demanded instant freedom ; and his forced, discon- 
tented labor was so unprofitable, that the Planters finally aban- 
doned the remainder of the term. 

Full soon the great fact became apparent, that the free Black 
would not work at all. The boasted theory that flourishing 
free Black Colonies would build up a vast market for British 
goods was proved every year to be more and more fallacious. 
As there was no industry in production, it followed there was 
no market for. consumption. The natural, inherent indolence 
of the Black could not be overcome for those rewards of in- 
dustry which stimulate the White, but which experience shows 
the Black does not appreciate. When the demonstration be- 
came irresistible that the free Black could not be induced to 
work, the British Government had to choose between the utter 
ruin of the West India Colonies, or the creation of some new 
kind of labor. Hence the origin of the present Coolie Trade. 
Tlie solicitations of the Planters became so pressing, that an 
Order in Council was issued, Jan. 15, 1842 (only nine years 
after Black Emancipation), which allowed the emigration of 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 27 

East Indian Coolies (day-laborers), under certain Govei'nment 
restrictions. The Chinese Coolie Trade is in the hands of 
Ship-owners, who employ Chinese contractors to collect these 
miserable creatures, and ship them to Peru and Cuba undei 
circumstances of great barbarity. English vessels are chiefly 
engaged in this traffic, the horrors of which fully equal, if they 
do not exceed, those of tlie former Slave Trade. 

I will not weary your Lordship with further details on this 
subject. It is plain, however, that the Emancipationists of Eng- 
land have little, unhappily, to congratulate themselves upon in 
► the way of humanity, by substituting the present Coolie Trade for 
the late Black Slave Trade. One instance of many will suffice. 
The British bark Gertrude arrived at Havana, May 13, 1853. 
She had started on her voyage with a cargo of 192 Coolies, and 
of these 152 had died during the passage. I do not know if 
the Coolies are insured now-a-days as the Blacks used to be, 
else this extraordinary mortality might be suspected. The 
survivors, however, were sold for Y years to the Planters, and 
were turned, of course, into the Negro gangs, to be governed 
by the same discipline. At the end of the term of 7 years, it 
should be added, the Coolie is turned adrift to perish, or, if 
still able to work, he is employed, like the Negroes, for a bare 
subsistence. The Coolie Trade is not merely a revival of the 
old Slave Trade, but something worse. The new treaty with 
China makes the Coolie Trade, for the first time, legal. 

The facts I have related, my Lord, have carried the convic- 
tion home to the minds of the practical men of England, that 
free Black labor is a Tiiere illusion ! Consequently, we find 
the London Times, and other organs of public opinion, are be- 
ginning to admit, unreservedly, that Emancipation in the West 
Indies "sVas a failure and a mistake : that humanity has gained 
nothing, while all other interests have lost. 

The Manufacturers of Lancashire, too, are unable to conceal 
their apprehensions at the spread of the exploded English theory 
of free Black labor now entertained so generally in our Northern 
States. They feel their dependence increasing every year on 
our cotton crop of the South, and they naturally dread lest the 



28 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

tampering of tlie North with Bhick labor in the South may 
lead, sooner or later, to irregular or diminished supplies of this 
indispensable element of British Manufactures. 

I will now proceed, my Lord, to consider Black Slavery in 
the United States. 

RESUME. 

During 246 years, England derived vast commercial profits 
from the African Slave Trade. 

Tlie Trade directly interested the shipping-merchants of 
Liverpool, London, and Bristol, and tlie manufacturers of 
"coast goods," while the national wealth greatly increased 
under the influx of "West Lidia productions. 

The Trade was stopped only when larger benefits were 
expected from free African colonies than from dealing in 
Slaves. 

Emancipation was, finally, determined on when free Black 
colonies were supposed more advantageous than Slave colonies. 

The theory of free Black colonies utterly failed, through the 
inherent and incurable indolence of the Blacks. 

The Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the Emancipation of 
the Blacks in the West Indies, may have been inspired by 
philanthroj)y, but the moral question was necessarily sub- 
sidiary to calculations of interest. 

The failure of West Lidia Emancipation is rapidly effecting 
a change of opinion in the leading minds of England as to the 
feasibility of free Black labor in the cotton-growing States of 
America. 



Black Slavery in the United States.- 

From what I have already stated, it may be seen, my Lord, 
that during the colonial existence of this country, African 
Slavery had been introduced and overspread its whole surface. 
The Southern Colonies had, from the fertility of the soil and 
the value of their productions, become the most profitable mart 



lktti:e to lord palmeeston. 



29 



for Black labor, but the influx gradually oiUstripped their pro- 
ductive powers, and began, as elsewhere, to inspire the leading 
men of this section with serious alarm. They devised what 
means they could to check it, but commercial rapacity eluded 
or overpowered their remonstrances. While the Southern 
Colonies were thus suffering, at this early date, both incon- 
venience and detriment from the Blacks who were forced upon 
them, the Northern, or New England Colonies, were driving a 
brisk and profitable business upon the solitary basis of the 
African Slave Trade. The principal occupations of these 
Colonies consisted of Commerce and the Fisheries. The New 
England ships made the voyage to England with tobacco, rice, 
and other Southern products, and then took in British manu- 
factures for the Gold Coast, which exchanging for Blacks, they 
returned with them to the Southern Colonies, sold them, and 
reloaded with tobacco, &c., for the North and Europe, as be- 
fore, thus completing the round voyage. The fisheries em- 
ployed a considerable number of persons, and the cured fish 
found sale chiefly in the Catholic countries of Europe, mostly 
in exchange for coin,* which was always in demand for Eng- 
land. Large quantities of these fish were sold in the West 
Indies for sugar and molasses. The latter was distilled into 
rum, which, in the changing character of the Slave Trade on 
the Coast under the British governors, rapidly became a 
favorite article of barter for Blacks, greatly to the dissatisfac- 
tion of the English manufacturers of coast-goods. Lord Shef- 
field, in his report to the Parliamentary Committee of 1777, 
states, that " out of the Slavers which periodically left Boston, 
thirteen of them were loaded with rum only, and that having 
exchanged this for 2,888 Negroes with the governors of the 
Gold Coast, they carried them thence to the Southern Colonies." 
The same report mentions that during the three years ending 
with 1770, New England had sent 270,147 gallons of rum to 
the Gold Coast. Thus, from what I have stated, the startling 
fact will be elicited, my Lord, that the Northern and Southern 

* These were almost the only coins that circulated in those Colonies at that time, 
and consisted of Joes, Half- Joes, Pistoles, &c. 



30 LETTER TO LORD TALMERSTON. 

Colonies, long before the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
"War, were engaged in a lively controversy on the subject of 
slavery ; the South resisting the excessive flow of Blacks into 
their section, and New England persisting in the importation 
for the profits of the trade. The South was anxious to stop 
the Slave Trade and manumit their Blacks, but New Eng- 
land, like the Mother Country, was not disposed to listen to 
them, and abandon so lucrative a traflBc. 

Mr. Jeff'erson, of Virginia, seems to have been one of the 
most earnest advocates of the Southern sentiment. In 1777, be- 
ing then a member of the Virginia Legislature, he brought in 
a bill which became a law, "to prevent the importation of 
slaves." He also proposed a system of general emancipation, 
as a preliminary to which he introduced a bill to authorize 
manumission, and this became a Law. In these efibrts he had 
the support and sympathy of the Slaveholding States who 
were overrun with slaves, that returned no adequate remu- 
neration. At this period their numbers reached some 600,000, 
a part of whom were employed in raising tobacco and rice. 
The majority of them, however, were occupied in domestic 
farm-labor, producing no exportable values. Hence there was 
no profit in slavery at the South, while at the North it was 
even a greater burden. Massachusetts found it so unpro- 
ductive that, in 1780, she abolished it in lier own borders, but 
she did not cease for that reason to force it, by her importa- 
tions, on the South. 

In the Congress of the Confederation, the views of the North 
and South on the subject of slavery, founded on .interests so 
antagonistic, frequently came into collision. It was at this 
epoch, too, that Virginia, Georgia, and other Southern States, 
ceded to the Federal Government, for the common benefit of 
all the States, their immense Western territories.* All the 
States were then Slaveholding, and the idea that a man could 
not hold his slaves in any part of the territory of the United 
States, had never yet been broached. On the contrary, the 
right to carry them everywhere was undoubted. The policy of 

* The State of Virginia, March, 1784, ceded the territory north of the Ohio, on the 



♦ LETTER TO LORD PALMEESTOX. 31 

Virginia, however, was manumission ; and Mr. Jefferson, in 
1784, prepared in the Congress of the Coniederation a clause 
preventing slaves being carried into the said territories ceded 
to the United States, north of the Ohio river. This was a part 
of the Southern scheme of manumission, which was meant as 
a check to the trading in JSTegro-slaves, carried on by Massa- 
chusetts with unabated activity. This clause did not pass at 
the time, but, in 1787, it was renewed by Nathan Dane in the 
Federal Convention. The clause enjoining the restitution of 
fugitive slaves was then added, and it passed unanimously. 
By an unanimous vote it became a vital part of the Federal 
Constitution, and without it this compact could never have gone 
into effect. The Slave Trade carried on by the North became, 
also, the theme of much sharp discussion in the Convention. 
The North was not disposed, of course, to give it up, but with 
the South it had become an intolerable grievance. They had 
long and earnestly protested against it when carried on by the 
Mother Country, but their minds were now made up to break 
with the North rather than submit further to this traffic. The 
North then demanded compensation for the loss of this very 
thriving trade, and the South readily conceded it by granting 
them the monopoly of the coasting and carrying trade against 
all foreign tonnage. In this way it was settled that the Slave 
Trade should be abolished after 1808.* Without this important 

condition that it be divided into not more than five, and not less than fhree States. 
Out of this territory was formed — 

Ohio, Nov 1802 



Ohio, Nov 1802 ") 

Indiana, April, 1816 
Illinois, Dec., 1818 \ 



North of the Ohio 



Michigan, Feb., 1833 j f ^°-^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Virginia, 

Wisconsin, Jan., 1838 J 

Kentucky, June, 1791 South of the Ohio 

The Tennessee land was ceded by N. Carolina. 
Mississippi " " S. Carolina. 

Alabama " " S. Carolina and Georgia. 

* In corroboration of the above, I append the following extract from the sermon 
of Eev. Dr. N. Adams, of the Essex-street church, Boston, delivered on Fast Day, 
January 4, 1861 : 

" We at the North are certainly responsible before God for the existence of slavery 
in our land. The Committee of the Convention which framed the Constitution of 
the United States consisted of Messrs. Rutledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Vir- 



32 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

clause, the South would never have consented to enter into a 
Confederacy with the North. The Federal Constitution, with 
the.>e essential clauses, having passed into operation, it became, 
hencel'orth, a certainty that the Slave Trade would finally ex- 
pire in the United States at the close of 1S08. This left it 
still a duration of nineteen years, and the North seemed deter- 
mined to reap the utmost possible advantage from the time 
remaining. The Duke de Rochefoucault-Liancourt, in his work 
on the United States, 1795, states, that " Twenty vessels from 
the harbors of the North are engaged in the importation of 
slaves into Georgia ; they ship one Negro for every ton bur- 
den." Thus we see, my Lord, that while New England was 
vigorously engaged in buying and selling Negro-slaves, Vir- 
ginia, on the other hand, was steadfastly pursuing her theory 
of manumission. 

In 1793, Congress, on the recommendation of President 
Washington, passed an act to put in force the clause of the 
Constitution enjoining the restoration of fugitive slaves. It 
seems evident they were regarded by the Constitution in the 
light of Property only. It likewise provided for taxing them, 
and ordained that three-fifths of their number should be a basis 
of representation. This was, certainly, the view taken by the 
framers of the Constitution, in their intercourse with foreign 
nations. John Adams, afterwards President, and Doctor 
Franklin signed, in 1783, the Treaty of Peace with Great 
Britain, which contained provision for payment of " Slaves and 
other Property" carried away during the War. These Treaties 
were examined and approved by the Government, composed 

^nia, and three from Free States, viz., Messrs. Wilson of Pennsylvania, Gorham of 
Massachusetts, and Ellsworth of Connecticut. They reported as a section for the 
Constitution, that no tax or other duty should be laid on the migration or importa- 
tion of such persons as the several States should think proper to admit ; not that 
such migration or importation should be prohibited. This was referred by the Con- 
vention to a committee, a majority of whom being from the Slave States, they re- 
ported that the Slave Trade be abolished after 1800, and that a tax be levied on 
imported slaves. But in the Convention, the Free States of Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, and Connecticut, voted to extend the trade eight years, and it was ac- 
cordingly done ; by means of wliich it is estimated there are now at least three 
hundred thousand more slaves in the country than there would otherwise have been." 



LKTTEK TO LORD PALMERSION. 33 

also of the very men who had taken the leading part in draft- 
ing the Constitution. In the -Treaty of Peace at Ghent, in 
1815, the same clause recurred, and the British Government 
paid a million and a half of dollars for Slaves that had been 
carried off by the enemy. The accounts of Hon. Kichard 
Rush, when Secretary of the Treasury, contain the various 
suras paid by the United States Government to the " Owners 
of Slaves and other Property." Our Government has also 
made frequent demands for the payment of Slave-property 
since the Peace. I remember that while I was an attache to 
our Legation in London, some twenty years since, the Ameri- 
can Minister, Mr. Andrew Stevenson, conducted a negotiation 
with your Lordship, then Foreign Secretary, for the payment 
of sundry slaves that had been cast ashore from wrecked 
American vessels, and set free by the Authorities of Bermuda. 
The demand was finally acknowledged, and the sum of 
£23,500 was paid as an indemnity. Li a word, the action of 
the Federal Government has been uniform and consistent in 
asserting and protecting the rights of our Slave-owners against 
all Foreign Powers. The right to this Property has been just 
as positively recognized in our domestic relations. In all the 
State Conventions held to discuss the Federal Constitution 
prior to adopting it, the right of property in slaves was never 
contested. The law at that time for recovering that property, 
was of a summary nature. The owner might seize his property 
wherever he found it, and on making an aflidavit before a 
Federal Judge, a warrant was issued for the removal of it. 
There was no provision for trial by jury, or for writ of Haheas 
Corpus, which would be indispensable if Black Slaves were 
considered as Persons. 

In 1797, John Adams, who signed the Treaty of Peace, and 
was the leader of the New England or Federal Party, succeeded 
Washington in the Presidential chair. At this period, the 
Slavery question was frequently agitated by the Democratic 
party of the South, with a view to its modification. In 1800, 
Jan. 2, Mr. Wain, of Philadelphia, presented a petition to 
Congress, from the free Blacks of Philadelphia, praying for a 



34 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

revision of the Fugitive Slave Law. On this occasion, Mr, 
Harrison Gray Otis, a leader of the Federal party, thus ex- 
pressed himself : " Although he possessed no slaves himself," 
he said, " yet he saw no reason why others might not ; and that 
their owners, and not Congress, were the fittest persons to reg- 
ulate that species of property P Mr. Brown, of Rhode Island, 
on the same occasion, declared " that the petition was not from 
Negroes, hut was the contrivance of a combination oi Jacobins 
(meaning the Democratic party), who had troubled Congress 
for many years, and he feared would never cease to do so. He 
therefore moved that the petition be taken away by those who 
had brought it there," The motion being supported by Messrs. 
Gallatin, Dana, and other Northern members, the petition was 
withdrawn. In this debate, the Northern members who rep- 
resented the Slave-trading interests, naturally adhered to the 
Property in Blacks, although the new doctrine of the British 
Abolitionists began to make converts in this country, outside 
of the body of Quakers, who had always opposed slavery. 

It may be as well to remark here, my Lord, that it does not 
appear any laws were ever enacted in Great Britain, authoriz- 
ing the trading in, or possession of Black Slaves as Property. 
Nevertheless, that they were so regarded, is evident from the 
opinion of the Eleven Crown Judges, given in pursuance of an 
Oi'dcr in Council, and in consequence of which the Navigation 
Act was extended to the Slave Trade, to the exclusion of 
Aliens. The laws by which England allowed the holding of 
slaves, extended, of course, to the Colonies ; and all those of 
North America held slaves, without any special enactments for 
that purpose. The riglit was inherent, like that to any prop- 
erty; and when the separation of the Colonies from the Mother 
Country took place, that legal right, like the Common Law of 
England, survived the Hevolution, and remained in force in all 
parts of the country. It may seem, to your Lordshij), unneces- 
sary to dwell so emphatically on this point; but it is the very 
pivot of the dispute now raging in the United States. It is 
claimed by the Anti-slavery party that slavery exists by local 
law only, and cannot exist out of the State sanctioning it. 



LETTER TO LORD PAL:^[ER5TON■. S5 

Whereas, it is maintained by their opponents that it originally 
existed all over the land, whether as Colonies, or States, and 
that it reqnired a special law to exclude it. This fact is be- 
yond cavil.* It should be also recollected that the Spanish 
and French Colonies, that afterwards became a part of the 
United States, derived the right to hold slaves from the head 
of the Church, as well as from the State. 

To return to the record of events. During Mr. Jefferson's 
first term of office, the State of Virginia proposed to the Fed- 
eral Government that the proceeds of the public lands that 
had been ceded to it should be appropriated to the manumis- 
sion and removal of slaves, with the sanction of the respective 
States. This movement was not successful. 

It is necessary to notice two very important events that 
occurred during the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, which 
whollj^ changed the destiny of Black Slavery in the United 
States. The first was the invention of the Cotton-gin, f wdiich 
gave great additional value to this staple, and hence opened a 
broader field to the employment of the Blacks. The next was 
the purchase of Louisiana, which added new and valuable ter- 
ritory to the South and its special products. These two events 
revolutionized completely the value of Slave labor at the 
South, and the Blacks, instead of continuing a burden as hith- 
erto, became henceforward a source of profit. It followed, of 
course, that the Slaveholders, instead of seeking, as formerly, to 
get rid of this kind of property, began to show an anxious 
desire for its preservation. On the other hand, the approach- 
ing termination of the Slave Trade, which had profitably 
employed for so many years the commercial interests of New 
England, rendered that section not only indifferent to the 

* Among other Authorities on this vexed question of the day, may be cited that 
of Chief-justice Parker, of Massachusetts, the leading Abolition State. In 2 Pick- 
ering, he says: "We thus, in making the Constitution, entered into an agreement 
that slaves should be considered as property," &c., &e., &c. 

+ This admirable machine for separating the seed from the cotton with extreme 
celerity, was the invention of Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts. It is strange that it 
was the mechanical genius of a New Englander that alone prevented the abolition of 
slavery long since by the South. 



36 lA-.Tl'KK TO LOKD PALMERSTON. 

prolongation of slavery, but even, out of cliagrin from having 
been forced by tlie opposition of the. South to give it up, tliey 
beo^an to nourish a species of spite against it, and which has 
since manifested itself with uninterrupted bitterness, till, at 
last, it is bringing the Confederacy to the \erge of a final dis- 
solution. Thus we see, my Lord, not only a singular and sud- 
den revulsion of opinion on the subject of slavery in the South 
and North at the epoch in question, but that in both cases it 
was dictated by a vital change in their material interests. It 
appears, then, that mere humanity had nothing to do with the 
South trying to get rid of slavery, or with the North beginning 
to oppose it. They were both governed by the same motive 
of self-interest that liad for so long a time stimulated England, 
fii-st to carry on the Slave Trade, and next to emancipate her 
Blacks. 

The cotton culture now began to develop its influence on 
the Blacks. Instead of complaints of a vast surplus of liands, 
there was very soon talk of a scarcity ; and year by year the 
number of bales of cotton raised per head of the Blacks, has 
increased, until the proportion has reached one and a quarter 
bales each hand, against one bale for every twenty -four Blacks, 
sixty years ago. Tiie price of the Blacks has accordingly risen 
from $250 to $1,500 for good field-hands. The increase has 
been confined to natural laws since the Abolition of the Trade, 
in 180S. 

The cessation of the Slave Trade, and the purchase of Louisi- 
ana, both of which were so distasteful to the North, were fol- 
lowed, unfortunately, as already stated, by the Embargo Act, 
in Mr. Jefierson's Administration ; and all this together, gave 
nearly a quietus to the commercial interests of New England. 
Tlie exasperation which followed these measures, that seemed 
to threaten ruin to this section, led shortly to a desire to break 
up the Confederacy. In February, 1809, the Governor-general 
of Canada, Craig, deputed his agent, John Henry, to go to Bos- 
ton and treat with the leading Federalists there ; and by the 
arrangement tiien made, Massachusetts was to declare itself 
independent, and invite a Congress to erect a separate Gov- 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 37 

ernment. Mr. John Q, Adams, Ex-President, in a letter to 
Mr. Otis, 1828, states that the plan had been so far matured, 
that proposals liad been made to a certain individual to put 
himself at the head of tlie military organization. These 
schemes went on until they resulted in the Hartford Conven- 
tion, 1814, where the subject of a Northern Confederacy, in all 
its bearings, underwent discussion. The sentiment of the 
North at that time may be seen in the party cry : " The Poto- 
mac for a boundar}^ — The Negro States to themselves." This 
was the favorite phrase of the day all over the Eastern States, 
and the Secession movement now going on in the South, was 
not more popular or more seriously resolved on. The Peace 
with Great Britain soon afterwards occurred, and the stimulus 
this gave to business of all kinds, together with the concilia- 
tory conduct, as stated, of Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina, 
diverted New England from her resolute menace to break up 
the Union. 

While this irritation was still lingering in the Northern 
mind, a bill was introduced into Congress, 1818, to authorize 
the people of Missouri to form a Constitution, preparatory 
to admission into the Union. This territory was a portion 
of that same Louisiana whose purchase had been so ve'he- 
mently resisted by New England. During its ownership 
by Spain, and afterwards by France, slavery had existed in 
the whole of this territory, and it remained undisturbed after 
its purchase by the United States ; nevertheless its admission 
into the Union as a Slave State, was violently opposed by the 
Eastern States. An ardent political struggle ensued, that 
threatened the safety of the Confederacy, but which was, 
finally, allayed by admitting Missouri as a Slave State, but on 
the condition that no more Slave States should exist north of 
the 36° 30' parallel of latitude. This is the well-known Mis- 
souri Compromise. It was at this time, also, that the Slave 
Trade was declared to be Piracy, and punishable with death. 

Meanwhile, slavery had become so manifestly unprofitable 
at the North, that most of these States abolished it. New 
York did so in 1826, and many other States, even Delaware, 



38 LETTEK TO LOKD PALMERSTON. 

Maryland, and Virginia, were moving in the same direction. 
New Jersey, Ohio, and Delaware passed resolutions desiring 
Congress to appropriate the proceeds of the Public Lands to 
the manumission of slaves, with the consent of the Slave 
States. In 1825, Rufus King, of New York, made the same 
proposition in Congress, where it had been originally introduced 
by Virginia. At this period, in the Southern States the utmost 
favor was extended to Emancipation. Societies for this pur- 
pose were formed to co-operate with the Colonization Society, 
then in full vigor, and whose object was to free Blacks and 
transport them to Liberia. In March, 1825, Virginia passed 
an act to furnish the Colonists in Liberia, under the direction 
of the "Richmond and Manchester (England) Colonization 
Society," with implements of husbandry, clothing, &c. The 
emancipation of Blacks to be sent to Liberia, were frequent all 
over the Southern States, and on a liberal scale. Alabama, 
Louisiana, and Missouri passed laws prohibiting slaves to be 
brought within their borders for sale, and further enacting that 
those brought in by settlers should not be sold under two 
years. 

The sentiment of Emancipation was making steady progress; 
but unfortunately, at the same time, a decided repugnance 
to free Blacks began to manifest itself. Ohio, Illinois, and 
other Northwestern States forbade by law free Blacks 
coming into the State, under any pretence ; and a white per- 
son who brought one in, was required to give bonds in $500. 
They were not regarded as citizens of the United States, and 
from their idle habits, were considered as a nuisance every- 
where. The Southern States also enacted that free Blacks 
arriving there as seamen, should be under surveillance while in 
port. In consequence of this general antipathy to free Blacks, 
and in view of the difficulty of deporting them, Mr. Tucker, of 
Virginia, proposed in Congress, 1825, to set off the territory 
west of the Rocky Mountains as a Colony for free Blacks. 
This judicious effort failed; but all the leading statesmen of 
the South, Mr. Mangum, Mr. McDuffie, &c., urged the adop- 
tion of some scheme of emancipation. 



LEITER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. 39 

Up to tins period, the Emancipation and Colonization scheme 
had been gradual, progressive, and beneficial. It had been 
conducted on wise as well as Christian principles, and certainly 
with the best results. The organ of this practical enterprise 
was published at Baltimore, under the title of the " Genius of 
Universal Gradual Emancipation." 

About this time, unhappily, a new movement was initiated 
in New England. The doctrine of Abolition was then at the 
zenith of its popularity in England, where it was already pro- 
posed to transplant it to our Southern States, which would then 
be converted into a great free Black cotton-growing country. 
This utterly impracticable idea was seized upon by various in- 
dividuals of the New England States, who forthwith began to 
sow the seeds of agitation. It is impossible to attribute to them 
any very philanthropic motive ; for only twenty years had 
elapsed since Massachusetts had been forced to give up her 
slave-trading, and it is not at all credible that the tastes thus 
acquired should, in so short a time, have been supplanted by 
so ardent a love for the JSTegro of the South as to desire his 
manumission at the risk of breaking up the Confederacy. No, 
my Lord, it really looks more like the renewed expression of 
that old grudge which the Eastern States have for so many 
years nourished against the South. 

Be that as it may, it was in 1828 that a Mr. Arthur 
Tappan subscribed, with the aid of friends in Boston, 
sufficient funds to establish a newspaper in New York, called 
the "Journal of Commerce," whose object was to promote 
the borrowed English theory of Abolition.* Its Editor was 
a certain David Hale, an auctioneer of Boston, and a 
teacher in the Presbyterian Sunday-school there. At the 
same juncture, the Baltimore "Genius of Emancipation" 
fell into the hands of another Abolitionist, named W. Lloyd 
Garrison. This individual was the grandson of what was 
known as a "Tory" during our Revolutionary War, and who, 
at the Peace, was compelled to fly the country to Nova Scotia, 

* This Journal has long »mce abandoned its original tenets, and is now a conspic- 
uous stickler for the rights of the South. 



40 LK'ITER TO LOKD PALMEESTON. 

wlience his widowed d:inghtcr and her only son retnVned, some 
years after, to Boston, to seek a livelihood. The young Garri- 
son readily caught up the doctrine of Abolition, as most con- 
genial to his English antecedents and^ education, and set to 
work with baleful energy to urge its propagation, fraught with 
so many dangers to the country of his adoption. On assuming 
the editorship of the Baltimore paper, he instantly assailed 
both Colonization and Emancipation as only obstructions to 
Aboliliou, and o})euly avowed that the Union of the States was 
equally an obstacle to Abolition, By some it was supposed 
that this treasonable denunciation of the Union was out of 
deference to the memory of his Tory grandfather, who had 
done all he could to prevent it. 

It may easily be imagined that the startling proclamation of 
such ultra views as these, led rapidly to a complete revolution 
of feeling at the South. The excitement against Garrison 
spread far and wude. The Manumission Society of North 
Carolina demanded his imprisonment, and the State of Georgia 
set a price upon his head. The emancipation societies at the 
South began to suspend their operations and to break u}). 
The Baltimore journal mentioned, it was necessary to suppress. 
The people of tlie South generally, becoming more and more 
alarmed at the aggressive attitude of the Abolitionists, began 
to ponder over some means of defence. 

In the year 1830, the same Garrison founded a new journal 
in Boston, called " The Liberator," whence he propounded his 
extreme views in the most extravagant language. In the fol- 
lowing year, the " New England Anti-slavery Society" was 
formed. This was followed in due course by the " American 
Anti-slavery Society," under the leadership of Messrs. Garri- 
son, Tappan, and Birney. The Sunday-schools of the Eastern 
States became active coadjutors in the same cause. These 
societies adopted precisely the same tactics as their British 
prototypes. They circulated tracts and books, full of inflam- 
matory appeals. Highly-colored engravings too, representing 
the Black undergoing every kind of torture, were distributed 
for those who could not read. These were meant more espe- 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 4:1 

ciallj to excite the Blacks at the South, and were sent through 
the mails. These proceedings were considered, at the time, so 
dangerous to the peace of the community and to the integrity 
of the Union, that popular indignation frequently broke out 
into riot. In New York, in 1832, the dwelling of Arthur 
Tappan and the church of Dr. Cox were both demolished by 
a mob. Many influential citizens sanctioned these violent 
demonstrations of public feeling, and the well-known Editor 
of the "Courier and Enquirer," Mr. James Watson Webb, 
boasted of his share in this rude vindication of Southern 
rights.* 

The Abolitionists of Boston, meanwhile, continued their 
operations with all the ardor of their puritanical descent. 
Garrison was sent to England, to obtain funds, by the Anti- 
slavery Societies; and in 183J: he returned home with Mr. 
George Thompson, a member of Parliament at that time, and 
an Abolition lecturer. This led to so violent an outcry, that 
Thompson, alarmed for his safety, went back to England. 
A new mode of excitement was then devised by the Abolition- 
ists, who got up a clamor against South Carolina for detaining 
free Blacks who came into her ports. Massachusetts claimed 
that free Blacks were her citizens, and that as such they had a 
right to go to South Carolina; but as she made no complaint 
ao-ainst Ohio, Illinois, and other States who also excluded free 
Blacks, it was evident that she sought a quarrel with South 
Carolina, for the very purpose of spreading the Abolition 
infection. 

A Mr, Hoar was sent by Massachusetts as an agent to 
Charleston to make a formal complaint of her alleged griev- 
ance, and, as was anticipated, Mr. Hoar was summarily dis- 
missed. Upon this the Abolitionists professed great indigna- 
tion, and the Legislature was appealed to for a measure of 
retaliation, which was soon got up under the title of a 
" Personal Liberty Bill," which w' as designed, under a trans- 
parent plea, to obstruct the restoration of fugitive Blacks. 

* This gentleman has since changed his ground, and is now a prominent leader of 
the Anti-slavery party. 



42 LErrER to lord palmkkston. 

I sliould not forget here to remark, my Lord, that up to tliis 
time, Abolition had been discussed merely as a moral question, 
but the agitation had gained such strength among its unsus- 
pecting converts, that it was thought high time by its design- 
ing leaders to carry it into the political arena, where they an- 
ticipated making it a stepping-stone to power and emolument. 

It will be seen in the sequel, that these ingenious schemers 
were doomed to disappointment, and that the spolia optima of 
the agitation they began, were destined to be gathered by the 
hand of the professional politician, leaving but " a barren 
sceptre in their gripe." 

In 1838, the Abolition party was too weak and too ignorant 
of political strategy to dare to take the field in person, there- 
fore, they began coquetting with the prominent politicians of 
the day. Mr. Marcy and Mr. Seward wei-e, at that time, the 
candidates of the two rival parties for Governor of the State of 
New York, and perhaps the two most influential men of the 
North. The occasion was thought opportune by Messrs. Smith 
and Jay, the New York sponsors for the untoward bantling of 
Abolition, to put these gentlemen to the test. It happened 
that there existed a statute in New York, called the "Sojourn- 
ment Law," which allowed a Slaveholder to bring his Black 
servants with him, and remain there nine months, without 
prejudice to his rights ; for it had been decided in the Federal 
Courts that a slave taken voluntarily into a Free State, could 
not be recovered. When Mr. Seward was interrogated in 
relation to this law, he sustained it as " a becoming act of hos- 
pitality to Southern visitors." Mr. Marcy made no reply. 
Mr. Seward, however, changed his views afterwards on this 
subject, and refused, in 1840, while Governor, to restore a fugi- 
tive slave, on the requisition of Virginia. 

The evil results of this sectional issue were foreseen by many 
States; and among others Ohio, in 1840, passed resolutions in 
her Legislature to the eftect that "Slavery %vas an institution 
recognized by the Constitution," and that " the unlawful, unwise, 
and unconstitutional interference of the fanatical Abolitionists 
of the North with the institutions of the South, were highly 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 43 

criminal." It may be supposed that the violent proceedings 
of the Northern Abolitionists did not escape the attention of 
the South, where they created not only alarm, bi>t aroused a 
deep and natural feeling of indignation. The change of senti- 
ment that had occurred, may be seen in an act of the State of 
Alabama, to the effect that " all free Blacks remaining in the 
State after August 1, 1840, should be enslaved." 

At the very close of 1839, a handful of Abolitionists met in 
Warsaw, N. Y., and decided formally to transform their doc- 
trine from a moral into a political question ; and they set to 
work at once, on a political organization. Determined to 
eschew any affiliation with the parties of the day, they selected 
one of their own band, Mr. Birney, as a candidate for the 
Presidency of the United States. It was now evident to all 
dispassionate observers, that the motives of the founders of 
Abolition were not so much tlie emancipation of the Blacks, as 
their own elevation to place and power. It is clear enough the 
North regarded them with just suspicion at that day, for in 
the Federal election of 1840, Birney received but 7,000 votes. 

The agitation of the Slavery question received a new stimu- 
lus at this period, from the discussions awakened by the revolt 
of Texas. This line country had once formed part of Louisiana, 
but was ceded by France to Spain, and then became a part of 
Mexico. In 1836, an insurrection, headed by Americans, broke 
out, and was soon followed by the independence of Texas. 
Speculations now ran high in the price of her lands, and the 
project was broached of reannexing her to the United States. 
The celebrated Daniel Webster, among others, favored this 
scheme ; but he was afterwards induced to change his views 
and oppose it. Just as in the case of Louisiana, in 1805, the 
New England States resisted the Annexation of Texas, during 
the Presidency of Mr. Tyler, on the same pretext of extending 
slavery, but on the real ground of jealousy of the South. The 
leading politicians of the day were sorely embarrassed whether 
to support Annexation or not ; and by opposing it, Mr. Clay 
lost his election in 1844, and for the same reason, Mr. Yan 
Buren failed to obtain his renomination by the Democratic 



44 LETTER TO LORD PAI,MERSTOX. 

party. The difficulty was terminated by the admission of 
Texas, March 3, 1845, but on the agreement that four States 
should be fui'med out of the territory, besides the one existing, 
and that the States so formed south of the line 36° 30' should 
be admitted with or without Slavery, as their inhabitants 
should decide, but that Slavery should not exist north of that 
line. 

A temporary lull followed ; but the Slavery question was 
soon again evoked, to gratify a political grudge. The rejection 
of Mr. Yan Buren as the Democratic candidate in 1844, by 
Southern influence, in consequence of his opposition to Texas, 
led him, from motives of irritation, to raise up a new party in 
New York, on the cry of " Free Soil, or no more Slave States." 
This act was a violation of the agreement made with the South 
on the admission of Texas, and was frowned upon by the 
Democratic party ; but the issue started by Mr. Yan Buren 
was successful enough to divide the party in the State of New 
York, and to give the election to the Northern party. As a 
matter of course, this incensed and alarmed the South, who 
were, at last, pacified by the Compromise measures of 1850, 
which, however, were stoutly opposed by Mr. W. H. Seward, 
who had become already the chosen and able representative of 
the Anti-slavery sentiments of the North, 

I may as well observe here, my Lord, what I have already 
stated elsewhere, that the politicians of the North, unfor- 
tunately, found themselves in the sad predicament of having 
no political principles to advocate. The settlement of the 
Tariff question in '46, on the demand of the commercial inter- • 
ests of the North, left them wholly destitute of any policy by 
which they might hope to ride into power. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it was natural they should follow with a wistful 
eye the laboi's of the Abolitionists, who had certainly succeeded 
in working up the feelings of the North to a livel}^ pitch of 
excitement on Soiitlici-n Slavery. They were not, of course, 
disposed to borrow the extreme views of these zealots, which 
were wholly incompatible with the existence of the Union ; 
but tliey thought they might venture to utilize to their advan- 



LETTKR TO LOKD PALMEKSTON. 45 

tage the Anti-slavery sentiments that had been so skilfully 
aroused. They set about this very adroitly by raising a cry 
against extending slave territory, which, it was supposed, 
would please the susceptibilities of the North and not too 
much exasperate the South. Thus we find that eminent politi- 
cian, Mr. Seward, already at work in 1850, sowing the seeds 
of the new Anti-slavery party of the North, by opposing the 
healing policy of Mr. Clay, on the ground of its fostering sla- 
very and increasing its area. 

One of the prominent measures of the Compromise of 1850, 
was the new Fugitive Slave Law, which Daniel Webster de- 
clared to be far more lavorable to the Blacks than that recom- 
mended by Washington, in 1787. Yet it was seized upon by 
the cunning of the Anti-slavery politicians to keep up the sub- 
siding agitation, and several of the Legislatures of the North- 
ern States were induced to pass " Personal Liberty Bills," in 
imitation of the example set by Massachusetts. 

I must not omit to remark that the Abolitionists still kept 
on tbe even tenor of their way, and were as active as ever in 
promulgating their impracticable theory by secretly circulating 
tracts, books, and pictures, harping on slavery and all its 
fancied horrors. They still kept possession of the political 
field, and still hoped to make a ladder of their hobby by which 
to ascend to power. Li 1852, they dropped Mr. Birney, and 
selected for their Presidential candidate Mr. Hale, of New 
Hampshire. He received 157,000 votes, against the 7,000 
thrown for Birney, in 1840. 

Among other ingenious modes of excitement, a discussion 
was regularly kept alive at the North as to the citizenship of 
free Blacks. Several States bestowed the sufiTrage upon them, 
as a practical proof of their right to rank as citizens. This 
controversy was rather inflamed than otherwise, by a decision 
of the Federal Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, 1853, 
which settled that no Blacks are citizens of the United States. 
In 1854, the Slavery question reappeared in Congress, and the 
action of the North and South on this occasion was pregnant 
with serious consequences. Two new territories of the West 



46 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

were prononnced sufficiently occupied to render legislation 
necessary, and a bill to create a territorial government in 
Kansas and Nebraska, was reported by Mr, Douglas, of Illi- 
nois, His bill contained a clause to repeal the famous Mis- 
souri line of 36° 30', running south of the territories in ques- 
tion. This line was the basis of compromise in 1820, and was 
again a means of adjusting the dispute that arose on the ad- 
mission of Texas, in 1845. The constitutionality of this line 
was, however, more than doubtful, for the reason that Congress 
never had any power conferred on it by the Constitution to 
legislate on slavery ; nor was it at all necessary, since indi- 
vidual States could retain or exclude slavery, according to their 
pleasure. Besides, the line in question was really a nullity, 
because slavery was so unprofitable to the north of it that it 
would never be carried there. It was only to the south of this 
line that the cotton culture made slavery a profit and a neces- 
sity. Hence the South made no objection to its repeal, in 
1854 ; but it is difficult to perceive what motive Mr, Douglas 
could have had in proposing this repeal, unl6ss it was merely 
to fan the glowing embers of the Slavery question, 

Xo sooner was this Missouri line revoked, than a prompt 
and siijnificant movement was made in the New England 
States. Emigrant Aid Societies were formed, as already men- 
tioned ; and settlers for Kansas, one of the territories just 
organized, were lustily summoned as recruits in the new 
crusade against slavery, and funds in the way of bounty were 
liberally distributed. Tliis unusual means to stimulate emi- 
gration was designed to secure Kansas as a Free State, by 
obtaining a majority for the Northern people. Such an 
attempt, made with demonstrations of vehement hostility to 
the South, was sure to provoke anger and resistance. This, of 
course, was calculated upon by the Anti-slavery propaganda, 
and they were not disappointed. The Slave State of Missouri, 
directly adjoining Kansas, was not disposed to be forestalled, 
and, as it were, forced out of their legal share to territory in 
such close proximity ; so they did their best to encourage emi- 
gration too, but the Slaveholders were naturally chary to carry 



LETTER TO LdKD PALMERSTO.V. 47 

their Blacks with them, as they were sure to be tempted away. 
As a matter of course, it was impossible for the people of the 
two opposite sections, in their intemperate state of mind, to 
live long in peace together. Collisions occurred, and occasional 
loss of life ensued. The Abolitionists were eagerly waiting for 
some such news as this, for it was rightly anticipated that a 
conflict, sooner or later, was inevitable. 

When the looked-for intelligence at last arrived, a wild and 
furious shriek for " bleeding Kansas" vibrated in a thousand 
echoes through all the valleys of New England. * The organs 
of the Abolitionists teemed with the most discordant appeals 
to the passions of the people, and nothing but imprecations of 
the most startling description were launched against the 
" Border Ruffians," as the settlers from Missouri were forthwith 
christened. Public meetings were called in the Eastern States, 
and the Pulpit soon became a rostrum for clerical agitators. 
Subscriptions were rapidly set on foot to buy arms and ammu- 
nition for the sacred defenders of Anti-slavery in Kansas, whose 
brows were encircled with the halo of martyrdom. Speculators 
in "Sharpe's rifles" joined in the well-sustained chorus of the 
Abolitionists, and a considerable profit was the result. At a 
public meeting in New Haven, a well-known Abolitionist, 
Rev. H. Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn, and brother of the 
authoress of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," aided by his presence and 
language to swell the clamor fast rising in the North. He de- 
sired his name to be subscribed for " twenty-five Sharpe's 
rifles," and announced he would collect the money to pay for 
them in his church the following Sabbath, which was done. 

Your Lordship may readily infer that such ingenious modes 
as these, and so skilfully handled, could not fail to excite the 
sympathies and stir the passions of any community. Ever 
since 1828, the Abolition party had been laboriously engaged 
in sapping the mind of the North on the subject of Black 
Slavery ; nor must it be forgotten that they appealed to some- 
thing more than its philanthropy, when they raised the cry of 
" No more Slave Territory," which simply meant that all that 
vast extent of country stretching from the Mississippi to the 



48 LKTTEU TO LORD I'ALMKKSTON. 

Kocky Mountains, should be given up to Northern emigration. 
It was natural, certainly, that so palatable a doctrine should be 
acceptable at the North ; but just as natural that it should be 
unwelcome at the South, whose equal claims were so uncere- 
moniously ignored. 

The harvest so industriously tilled by the Abolitionists, was 
now ripe ; and the leaders of the old Whig, or Northern party, 
experienced, astute, and with an organization extending over 
the entire North, stepped forward, and brushing from their 
path the noi^y fanatics who had sown the seed, they gathered 
for their own garners the luxuriant crop of Anti-slavery senti- 
ment now sprouting all over the North. They met in conven- 
tion in Philadelphia, June, 1856, and unfurling the flag of the 
" Eepublican Party," made, for the first time, a sectional issue 
the basis of party action. They selected for their Presidential 
candidate Mr. John C. Fremont, most reputably known in the 
country as an ofiicer of the army, but without any^political ante- 
cedents. It was thought judicious not to nominate a politician 
too closely identified with the Anti-slavery movement, lest the 
possible consequences might alarm the "sober second thought" 
of the North. Thus accoutred, the Eepublican party went to 
the polls, November, 1856, and brought off a vote of l,33i,553. 
They were defeated by the Democratic party, which was now 
the only link between North and South ; but the Eepublican 
leaders felt quite sanguine that, w^ith the tactics their experi- 
ence would suggest, they would carry off the Presidential prize 
in 1860. It was thus that the moral question as to the sin of 
slavery, borrowed from England by our Abolitionists, and 
kept alive by their address till the North was thoroughly 
infected by it, was, at last, converted into a political question 
and made a party issue. 

It is hardly necessary to hint to a veteran like your Lord- 
ship, that the Eepublican politicians had not the remotest idea 
of interfering with slavery, if they could help it ; but they, 
doubtless, felt a dread lest the Northern masses, who had con- 
scientiously imbibed the Anti-slavery poison, might force them 
reluctantly to carry their unconstitutional theories into legisla 



LKTTEE TO LORD PALMEESTON. 49 

tion. It is certain they liad their misgivings, bnt there was no 
alternative. Without a principle or a measure to brandish 
against their political opponents, there was nothing but to 
abandon the hope of office, or to do battle with the dangei-ous 
arm they had taken from the hands of the Abolitionists. Un- 
fortunately, ambition outweighed patriotism ; and during the 
four years just elapsed, the country has been distracted with 
the din of the Anti-slavery propaganda. Orators, writers, 
lecturers, and preachers have all joined in the meUe^ and their 
united efforts were directed to the apotheosis of the Negro and 
the excommunication of the luckless Slaveholder. Every 
church, public hall, and hustings throngli the North, has 
rung with anathemas against the vilified South ; and it is not 
strange, therefore, that people accustomed to this unbroken 
strain of vituperation, should begin to believe, at last, that 
slavery was quite as hideous as it was painted. 

In October, 1859, an event occurred which amazed the whole 
country. I allude to the invasion of the State of Virginia by 
John Brown and his retinue of a dozen men, which, doubtless, 
your Lordship remembers. This man Brown, it appears, had 
figured in "bleeding Kansas" as a daring ringleader of the 
Anti-slavery bands that had contended for the mastery there. 
When these bloody contests subsided, he was reduced to inac- 
tion ; and he chafed at the loss of the stern excitement conge- 
nial to his fierce nature. Whether it was fanaticism, or ambi- 
tion that inspired him, no one can say ; but he conceived the 
horrible project of setting on foot a servile insurrection that 
would, if successful, have given the whole South up to rapine 
and murder. Followed by a handful of desperate men, he sud- 
denly entered the State of Virginia, seized the arsenal of the 
Federal Government to obtain the arms he needed, and raised 
the cry of ''Freedom to Slaves." To his astonishment, no doubt, 
the afifrighted Blacks ran to their masters for protection, and 
some were shot in seeking to escape. This nefarious attempt 
was quelled by the arrest of Brown and his confederates, and 
their subsequent trial and execution. 

One thing was proved by the utter failure of this daring 

4 



50 LETfEK TO LOKD PALMERSTON". 

outrage, for it showed that tlie Blacks were contented, with 
their homes, and desired not tlie emancipation of the sword. 
Another thing, if not quite so clear, at least looked ominous. 
This madman, Brown, had been known as an efficient instrr- 
ment in the hands of the Anti-slavery party of New England 
and it was, therefore, a matter of conjecture at the South how 
far he was incited to this fearful attempt against their very ex- 
istence. Had they not some reason to think the act met the 
approval of the Abolitionists of the North, when 300 bells 
tolled for the fate of Brown, and when the organs of the party 
honored his memory while affecting to disapprove his conduct? 

Your Lordship can readily imagine this event sank deep into 
the mind and heart of the Southern States. They were led to 
believe, for the first time, that the ultra wing of the Republican 
party contemplated the confiscation of their property and the 
destruction of their lives. 

AVhile a prey to these sad forebodings, another incident 
occurred in the summer of 1860, which deepened their convic- 
tion that the Nortliern States had entered into a dark conspir- 
acy to desolate their land with fire and sword. It was discov 
ered that a book, called the " Impending Crisis," was being 
secretly circulated all over the North as a " campaign docu- 
ment," a name given here to publications used in a Presidential 
canvass. The purport of this volume was to show, by assertion, 
as well as by figures, that the free labor of the North wae 
more profitable than the Black labor of the South. This Avas 
a fair topic of discussion, but the tone of the book was violent 
in the extreme. I will add a few extracts, which will enable 
your Lordship to form a correct opinion of the character and 
object of the M'ork : 

"Slavery is a jjreat moral, social, civil, and political evil, to be got rid of 
at the earliest practical period" — fpa^e 168). 

''Tliree-quarters of a century hence, if the South retains slavery, which 
God lbrl)id ! she will he to the North what Poland is to Kussia, Cuba to 
Spain, and Ireland to En-land"— (p. IfiS). 

"On our banner is inscribed — No Co-operation with Slaveholders in Pol- 
itics; no Fellowship with them in Religion; no Affiliation with them in 
Society. No Pvccognition of Pro-slavery men, except as Ruffians, Outlaws, 
and Criminals" — (p. 150), 



LETTER TO LORD PAOIKRSTON. 51 

"We believe it is, as it ought to be, tlie desire, the determination, and the 
destiny of the Republican party to give the death-blow to slavery" — (p. 234). 

" In any event, come what will, transj)ire what may, the institution of 
slavery must be abolished" — (p. 180). 

" We are determined to abolish slavery at all hazards — in defiance of all 
the opposition, of whatever nature, it is possible for the Slavocrats to bring 
against us. Of this they may take due notice, and govern themselves 
accordingly" — (p. 149). 

" It is our honest conviction that all the Pro-slavery Slaveholders deserve 
to be at once reduced to a parallel with the basest criminals that lie fettered 
within the cells of our public prisons" — (p. 158). 

" Shall we pat the bloodhounds of slavery ? shall we fee the curs of sla- 
very ? shall we pay the whelps of slavery ? No, never" — (p. 329). 

" Our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of heaven ; we have 
determined to abolish slavery, and so help us God ! abolish it we will" — (p. 
187). 

The volume containing the above quotations, not by any 
means the most bitter, was indorsed by 68 members of Con- 
gress of the Republican party, whose names were given for 
publication. I think your Lordship will hardly be surprised if 
the South, under manifestations like these, exhibited no small 
alarm. They felt they had a right to infer that, if a party 
making such declarations of hostility were elected to power by 
the North, they must either consent to the early abolition of 
Black Slavery, or retain it by seceding from the Union. 

When the British Government emancipated the Blacks in 
her colonies, she acted with the strictest commercial equity ; 
but the book in question repudiates any compensation to the 
" curs and whelps of slavery." One more extract: 

" The black god of slavery which the South has worshipped for 237 years" 
-(p. 163). 

Now, the writer is ignorant that the South protested for 
years, first, against the Mother Country, and, next, against 
New England, importing slaves within her borders. However, 
the object of the book was to inflame the mind of the North 
against the South, and therefore falsehood was just as good as 
truth. 

In April, 1860, the delegates of the Democratic party met 
in convention at Charleston, South Carolina, to make their 
nomination for the Presidency. The Northern wing of the 



52 LI-ri'JER TO LUKD I'ALMEKSTON. 

part}^ proposed Senator Douglas as the most eligible candidate 
at the North, from his doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty."* 
The Southern wing objected, as they considered said doctrine 
only a concession to the Anti-slavery dogma. Mr. Douglas, 
unluipjMly, did not withdraw his name, and a rupture of the 
party ensued. The Northern delegates nominated Mr. Doug- 
las, in Baltimore, June 18; and on the same occasion the 
Southern delegates nominated Vice-President Breckinridge. 

This unfortunate schism doubled the chances of the Repub- 
lican party, which met in convention to select their candidate at 
Chicago, Illinois, May, 1860, It was generally supposed that 
Mr, W. II. Seward, the acknowledged leader of the Anti-sla- 
very party at the North, an able and accomplished statesman, 
would be its chosen champion in the electoral lists about to 
open ; but, to the surprise of all, an almost unknown politician 
of the West, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, was selected as its standard- 
bearer. 

It would be no easy matter to explain to your Lordship why 
the founder and foremost man of a party in this country should, 
on a supreme occasion like this, be thrown aside and another 
exalted over his head, with no apparent claim to so great a 
distinction. It seems to have become almost a rule, of late 
yeai*s, to exclude the leading men of either party from the 
candidateship to the Presidency. This is a strange enigma, 
and can lead to no good. Expediency is the pretext. It is 
alleged, as one reason, that a prominent man offers too broad a 
target to the opposition Press ; but the truth probably is, that 
the ablest men are likely to be less pliant than obscure politi- 
cians, in the hands of those party managers who control nomi- 
nations in this country, from the President down to a tide- 
waiter. 

On the 6th of November, 1860, the long struggle between 
the North and South on the slavery question, that began in 
1803, ended with the election to the Presidency of Abraham 

* Mr. Douglas proposed giving the people of a Territory the right to retain or ex- 
clude slavery, instead of reserving the decision till the Territory was admitted as n 
State, the practice hitherto. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 63 

Lincoln, the representative of the Republican party, but which 
contained within its bowels, like the Trojan horse of old, the 
armed men of the Abolition party. Shortly after this event. 
Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, declared at a public 
meeting, that " the election of Mr. Lincoln was only the first 
step towards forcible emancipation." 

The advent of the Anti-slavery party to power, filled the 
Southern States with dismay. It mattered little to them 
whether the Republican party could control the Abolitionists, 
or whether the latter could dominate the former. It mattered 
little whether the Anti-slavery President was supported or not 
by majorities in both Houses of Congress. What they saw, 
felt, and comprehended in this election, was the fatal fact that 
the North had pronounced against the institution of Black 
Slavery. "Whether it was meant to limit it, or abolish it, they 
knew not ; but it was clear to them the}" must prepare for 
either, if they remained any longer members of the Confederacy. 

Whether this logic is well-founded ; whether the Soutli 
should have abided more aggression ; whether fear has over- 
come judgment, or whether fury courts open hostility, I know 
not ; but the South has thrown herself into the arms of Seces- 
sion with a wild abandon^ which shows that passion has seized 
on every fibre of her frame. 

The country is in the jaws of a fearful crisis. A miracle 
alone can save it. It reminds me of the condition of France 
in the autumn of 1851. The politicians of the Monarchical 
and Republican parties were fiercely struggling against each 
other for power, while the country was rapidly drifting towards 
anarchy. It was useless to reason with either. The Republi- 
cans told you they would obtain power first; and the Monarch- 
ists, with a grim smile, asseverated thej^ would obtain it at 
last. It was the sublime courage of Louis Napoleon that 
saved the State from countless calamities. He boldly closed 
the doors of the Assembly on the indecent strife of these selfish 
brawlers, and appealed to the people of France. Millions of 
voices rent the air with applause ; millions of votes sanctified 
the heroic act. 



54 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

Our destiny is still a problem, my Lord. Are we utterly at 
the mercy of those politicians who are ready to sacrifice the 
national good for their personal interest? — a class of men the 
poet has stigmatized — 

"Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo." 

Have we no patriots? Are the people helpless? Must we 
die on our own swords, amid the derision of Europe ? 

These are poignant questions, my Lord, and, to our humilia- 
tion, no response can be given. 



r£sum6. 

The whole territory of the United States was originally 
slaveholding — English, Spanish, and French. N'ot from any 
local law, but from the laws of the mother country. 

Slaves were regarded only as property in all the thirteen 
States that formed the Union ; since it would have been a 
manifest absurdity for the Slaveholders who made the Declara- 
tion of Independence, to declare " all men were born free and 
equal," had they not considered their slaves as property. 

In forming the Union, the thirteen Slave States conferred 
upon the Federal Government the power to tax slave proper- 
ty ; to protect it from foreigners, as well on the national tei-ri- 
tories as at sea, and also from domestic escape ; and conferred 
no other power, either to prohibit or to extend it. 

Opinions on slavery varied with its profits. The South 
repelled it when it was not profitable, and adhered to it when 
cotton made it so. The North clung to the profits of the Slave 
Trade as long as possible, and attacked the slave system when 
they were deprived of those profits. 

The territory that was once all slave, has become free ; — 1st, 
l)y the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slaves north of tlie 
Ohio ; 2d, by eight Northern States abolishing slavery in their 
borders; 3d, by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, prohibiting 
slaves north of 36° 30'; 4th, the act admitting Texas re-enact- 
ing that line. Thus the North has driven slaves out of half 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 55 

the territories of the United States, showing a constant and 
hirge aggression upon the Soiitli. 

The duty of the Government is undoubtedly to protect the 
j)roperty upon the Territories, until people there settled form 
their own laws. 

The agitation of the Slave question grew originally out of the 
chagrin of New England, at being deprived of the Slave Trade 
and its profits. It was prolonged by the mutual irritation that 
the opposition of Massachusetts to the purchase of Louisiana 
occasioned. 

Emancipation made steady progress in all the States, until 
Abolition forced the Slaveholders upon the defensive. 

Abolition made little progress, until unscrupulous partisans 
coquetted with it for party issues. 

The question of the power of the Government to exclude 
slavery from the Territories, has been blended with the moral 
question as to the "sin of slavery." 

The cry of " Free Soil" was raised in 184:8, by Mr. Van 
Buren, to avenge his non-nomination by the South, at Balti- 
more. 

The compromise measures of 1850, were carried by the 
influence of Henry Clay. 

Violation of these compromises, by the " Personal Liberty 
Bills" of the Northern States, soon followed. 

Eepeal of the " Missouri Compromise," in ISoi, with sup- 
port of the South. 

Attempt, by the Abolition party, to make Kansas a Free 
State b}^ force, which was resisted by the South. 

Rise of Repul)lican party under the lead of Mr. W. H. Sew- 
ard, and its defeat in 1856. 

Violent agitation of the Slavery question at the jSTorth, fol- 
lowed by the invasion of Virginia by John Brown, in 1859, 
and the secret circulation of the Helper Book, in 1860. 
Excessive alarm and exasperation of the South. 
The theory of a "Higher Law" at the North, to justify re- 
sistance to the Constitution and laws of Congress, has begotten 
the Higher Law of Self-preservation at the South, to justify 



56 LK'rrEB to lord palmerston. 

resistance to a dominant party Avhicli embraces the "sin of 
slavery" among its tenets. 



COMMENTARY. 

Before dropping the subject of Slavery in the United States, 
it is proper, my Lord, I should make known the sentiments of 
the moderate men of this country on the extraordinary fact 
that England should have assumed, the foremost rank in the 
anti-slavery crusade against our Southern States. They recol- 
lect that England introduced slavery into this country. They 
remember she upheld it against the remonstrances of the 
Southei'u Colonies. They know that England only abandoned 
it when no longer profitable. They think it, therefore, unrea- 
sonable that Euo-land should turn her back on these irlarino: 
facts ; and they feel that in face of them, it is unjust and inde- 
cent ibr Englishmen to give way to denunciation of slavery 
and abuse of Slaveholders. 

It is ditficult, my Lord, for them to suppress their indigna- 
tion at the torrents of invective incessantly launched by Eng- 
land against slavery in the L^nited States, when they reflect 
that but for the manufacturers of Manchester, African slavery 
would long since have died out in this divided land. It seems 
to every honest and practical mind in this country, that upon 
this subject, England is guilty of the most transparent hypoc- 
risy. If she conscientiously abhors the institution, why docs 
she consume its products ? If she cannot exist without them, 
why then assail the slave-labor that yields them ? 

It is time, my Lord, and the present crisis proves it, that the 
Statesmen and Press of England should pause and reflect sol- 
emnly on conduct both inconsistent and puerile. It is a mat- 
ter that must no longer be left to fanatics, else the coiLsequencc 
to England will be serious indeed. It is a topic that must be 
calmly argued and practically treated. What, then, will be 
the result? Why, such a revolution of opinion in England as 
tie world has rarelv witnessed. When once it becomes known 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 57 

there, and full soon it must, that the emancipation of our 
Blacks would reduce the cotton crop one-half, and double the 
])rice of the remainder ; that, in consequence, the manufactures 
of England would lose their ascendency in the markets of the 
world, involving the loss of countless millions — who can douht 
but that a people so intelligent and practical as the English, 
would be terror-struck at facts so formidable and incontestable ? 
But when it became further known, and investigation will 
make it clear, that all the thrilling books and sentimental 
stories, that all the eloquent essays and speeches from the pen 
of a Macaulay and the lips of a Brougham, are little else than 
extravagant rhapsodies ; that the condition of our Blacks has 
been misrepresented, their wrongs invented, and their suffer- 
ings imagined ; — when calumnies and exaggerations like these, 
I say, are swept away, — and the event is near at hand, — what, 
my Lord, will be the force of the reaction that must inevitably 
follow ? For the sake of England, whose interests are in dan- 
ger ; for the sake of this country, whose prosperity is menaced, 
I trust that facts and reason will be invoked when African 
Slavery in the United States is hencefortli discussed, and that 
mock appeals to a mistaken humanity will be discarded. 

I should weary your Lordship's attention, were I to attempt 
to enumerate a tithe of the idle stories that have circulated 
in the British Press, disparaging the happy condition of our 
Blacks. How many tears have been shed by the credulous ; 
how many sensitive hearts have throbbed in vain over cruelties 
and horrors that never existed ! It is but a short time, for 
instance, since the English journals gave w^de currency to a 
graphic recital of scenes of violence and deeds of barbarity 
that almost froze the blood of every reader. Yet it turned out 
that this heart-rending tale was a miserable hoax, and that its 
credulous author, John Arrowsmith, a cotton-broker of Liver- 
pool, while travelling in our Southern States, had fallen a 
vietiiu tit the waggish propensities of some of his fellow- 
travellers, who had discovered his sentimental weakness on the 
subject of slavery. To this day, however, no contradiction of 
this fiction has ever appeared. 



58 LErrER to lord palmerston. 

Again, it was but the other day, that the Englisli journals 
teemed •with the details of a brutal outrage on the Prince of 
Wales, in Richmond, the capital of Virginia. Yet, upon the 
high authority of the Duke of Newcastle, nothing of the kind 
ever happened, and the story was only an invention of our 
Abolition Press to excite the hatred of the loyal English 
against our Southern States. 

Such are the odious tactics that have been for years em- 
ployed by the Abolition party in England and the United 
States, to sow the seeds of that catastrophe now impending in 
the disunion of this Confederacy, entailing, perchance, the 
downfall of British manufactures. 

As one mode of arresting this calamity, let the public men 
of England hereafter admit that with the emancipation of our 
Blacks, they have nothing whatever to do. Let them honestly 
avow that any aspersion of the domestic institutions of our 
Southern States, is an unjust and presumptuous interference 
with others' affairs. The immediate effect of this would be to 
check the rant and dampen the ardor of the Abolition party 
among us. 

You can little imagine, my Lord, the immense prestige of 
the great names of England in this country ; nor is it possible 
to measure the extent of their influence and the force of their 
example. This doctrine of Abolition, which inspires so many 
of our politicians, moralists, and preachers, has been transplant- 
ed, as I have shown, from England ; and its currency here is not 
due to its intrinsic merits, but to the high and sounding titles 
that have Indorsed it. If this be doubted, let the experiment 
be tried. Let this insane crusade against our Southern States 
be frowned upon by Englishmen of rank and sense ; let the 
London Times direct its thunderbolts against the pigmy imita 
tors of your noble fanatics ; let titled ladies of the "West-End" 
no longer lionize the cringing writers and orators of our Xew 
England school — the descendants in blood and doctrine of 
those very Puritans who, I repeat, threw England into anar- 
chy, proscribed her nobility, and beheaded her unfortunate 
king. Let this be done, my Lord, and the impracticable Abo- 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 59 

lition party of this country will soon draw its last breath. Let 
this be done, and the South will be conciliated, and the North 
will be sobered. Let this be done, and the Union of these 
States may be prolonged, the manufacturing industry of Eng- 
land be preserved, and, above all, the condition of our South- 
ern Blacks be mitigated or improved, if need there be of 
either. 

I shall forbear, my Lord, from entering into any minute 
details on the condition, moral or physical, of our Southern 
Blacks; though much, indeed, might be said and proved of 
both, that would dispel the ignorance and mitigate the preju- 
dice of the really humane. 

If the Times newspaper of London would but send one of 
its accomplished and impartial correspondents to report on the 
character of Black Slavery in our Southern States, depend 
upon it, my Lord, the artillery of Exeter Hall would be forever 
silenced. Despairing of such a consummation, I will limit 
myself to a brief quotation from the columns of a JSTorthern 
journal, which my own observation enables me to assert is 
only a fair and truthful portrait of Negro life at the South : 

" Compared with European laborers, the Black lives like a 
prince. He has his cabin generally neat and clean, and 
always weather-proof. He has likewise his own garden-patch, 
over which he is lord paramount. He is well fed, well lodged, 
well clothed and never overworked. His holidays are numer- 
ous, and enjoyed with infinite gusto. Sleek, happy, and con- 
tented, the Black lives to a great age. The Slaveholder finds 
it to his interest to treat his Negroes liberally, and takes every 
means to make them healthy and contented." 

In striking confirmation of the above, I extract from the 
mortuary records of the last year the following cases of Negro 
slaves who lived to over a hundred years : 

1860— February 2 Female slave. ...Virginia 105 

" 15 Milly Lamar Georgia 135 

— March 25 Sam " 140 

— April 17 Glasgow Kentucky 112 

I submit, my Lord, that such extraordinary instances of Ion- 



60 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

gevity are conclusive as to adequate nourishment and moderate 
labor.* 

In line, my Lord, I consider it only fair and reasonable for 
us Americans, who have been obliged for years to bear inordi- 
nate opprobrium at the hands of your canting Abolitionists, to 
indulge occasionally in a ta qiioque. Some late English jour- 
nals furnish incidents it is impossible to resist quoting, since 
they so forcibly and painfully illustrate the contrast between 
slave-life in our country, and peasant-life in your Lordship's. 
I make these quotations, not from any vindictive or uncharita- 
ble feeling, but in the earnest hope that foreign criticism may 
stimulate English people to look at home, and not waste all 
their humanity in lamentations over our Blacks, while such 
shocking wretchedness haunts the hovels of their own color 
and kind, 

[From the Liverpool Post, December 11.] 

"In the London Times of yesterday, Mr. Henry Tucker, magistrate of the 
county of Berks, publishes a document which is quite pitiable enough to till 
the nation with horror and reproach. The song of the ' Happy Homes of 
England' can no longer be sung except as a fiction, for the rural districts 
afford specimens in abundance of the unhappy homes of England. 

"Mr. Tucker employed two competent persons to obtain correct informa- 
tion respecting the condition of the rural cottages, and he laid the result 
before the meeting of the Farringdon Agricultural Library on the 22d of 
last month. In doing this he expressed his belief that the condition of Far- 
ringdon Union is only a sample of the agricultural population of England. 
'Indeed,' he says, 'I have been assured by farmers that the want of decent 
accommodation has for some time past been driving the superior class of 
peasantry to emigrate ; and that unless some reformation be brought about, 

* As a pendant to slave-life painted by novelists, I append an extract from the 
Sermon, already noticed, of Eev. Dr. N. Adams, at Boston, on Jan. 4, 1861 : 

"There are pictures of loving-kindness in the daily history of those masters and 
mistresses, the contemplation of which will, by and by, change our tone of feeling 
towards them, and make us inquirers and learners, and not dictators on this subject. 
To illustrate my remark: A Northern lady in the South called upon a Southern lady, 
and found her nursing a black infant. It was the infant of one of her servants. The 
child was sick, and it died upon the lap of the mistress ; the slave-mother could not 
nurse the child; her mistress did it for her. That mistress was the sister of a Vice- 
president of the United States. That is ' slavery ;' yes, it is as truly ' slavery' as 
'auction blocks' are slavery. Yes, we may look for the time, not far oflf, when 
Christians at the South will come to be regarded by our people to be as humane and 
beuevoleut as they." 



LETTER TO LORD PALMKRSTON. 



61 



none bvit the feeble and most ignorant 
lodging is not to be procured.' We 
'Digest:'— 

" \\'ooLSTONE. — Man and wife, two 
grown-up sons, and an ilk-gitiniate child 
of tiie daULrliter, all sleep in one room; 
man and wife, with a son and two danafh- 
ters, sleep in one room ; two married 
couples and a child sleep in one room : 
man and wife, with daughter and two 
sons, sleep in one room. 

" W'atchfield. — A father and three 
daujrhters sleep in one room on ground 
floor; seven persons, in a two-roomed 
cottage, of whom two are lodgers, sleep- 
ing in the pantry ; a father sleeping with 
his daughter, seventeen years of age, and 
the wife in another bed. 

" LoNGCOT. — Man and wife with a child, 
one widower and one single woman with 
a child, making six persons, sleeping in 
one room ; two daugnters, each with an 
illegitimate child; a son, aged twenty, co- 
habiting with a woman, and four other 
persons, making ten in one room, with 
two beds. 

" Feunham. — Eleven persons sleeping 
in two bedrooms, both on the ground 
floor; seven persons do.; ten persons do.; 
.son and daughter, over si.xteen years of 
age, with two other persons, sleeping in 
one room ; three sons and a dangliter, and 
two younger children, with father and 
mother, sleeping in a room eight by twelve 
feet; two single men lodging with a man 
and wife, with four children, making eight 
persons sleeping in one room ; two broth- 
ers and two sisters, above sixteen years of 
age, with father, mother, and four chil- 
dren, making ten persons sleeping in one 
room. 

" Farringdon. — Si.xteen cottages in Red 
row. This is stated to be the mo.st wretch- 
ed place the reporter ever saw. Nine cot- 



-R-ill remain in places where decent 
subjoin a few of the items in the 



tages liitely indicted for a nuisance, but 
still very bad. In one cottage the drain 
fliiws into the sitting-room, and in an- 
other the drain at front door is ott'ensi\e. 
Three cottages are badly off for wr.tir. 
Several cottages in a bad state of drain- 
age. 

" Lechlade. — A man and wife, with a 
female lodger and five children, sleeping 
' pell meir together. 

'•BicKi-ANn. — A man and wife, with 
two grown-np girls and two other chil- 
dren, all sleeping in one room ; a man and 
wife, with tour children, including a 
grown-up girl, all sleep in one room ; a 
widow, witli grown-up son and daughter, 
and a lodger, all sleep in one room ; a 
woman slept for a long time with a son 
aged twenty-fonr. 

" LoNGwoRTH. — Most of the cottages in 
this village are very old, some of them 
scarcely tit to live in. (Said to be eccle- 
siastical property.) 

" Ki.NGSToN Lisle. — Most of the cottages 
have only one small bedroom, yet the 
families are large, and the majority take 
lodgers. Example — Man and wife, with 
five cliildren, and two men and three 
women lodgers, making twelve persons 
sleeping in one room. 

'•Balking.— Man and wife, with grown- 
up daughter and son, and four illegitimate 
children of daughter, all sleep in one small 
room. 

" Stantord. — A son over 16 years sleeps 
with father and mother. Four wretched 
tenements, with only one sleeping-room 
to each, occupied by large families. Of 
another it is said, ' a regular sty, not fit 
for human beings to live in,' yet seven 
persons live and sleep in the same room. 



" ' In addition,' says Mr. Tucker, ' to this degraded and degrading state of 
the agricultural laborers of England, as regards domestic comfort, many of 
the villages are reported as having no school, and hence ignorance and vice 
go hand in hand, and no exertion appears to be made to check the demor- 
alization of so large a j)ortion of the community. Surely, sir, the act of 
Parliament which authorizes the government to advance money to landed 
proprietors for the draining of land, erecting farm-buildings, &c., might ex- 
tend its provisions to the more important duty of housing the poor, if it were 
only with even half the comfort in which we house our cattle and our 
horses.' " 

I must confess my astonisliment, mj Lord, that misery and 
destitution like this is allowed to exist a single hour in Eng- 
land, which is not only the richest country in the world, but I 
helieye from long observation to be the most charitable. The 
enormous sums annually collected in England by missionary 



62 LETfER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. 

and eleemosynary societies of all kinds, would convert every 
English peasant into something like a millionaire. Surely this 
is a case, if ever there were one, to apply the familiar saying, 
that " charity should begin at home." 

Why do not the humanity-mongers of Exeter Hall withdraAV 
for a while their fascinated gaze from the shining faces of our 
merry Blacks, to the contemplation of the hollow cheeks and 
emaciated frames of their own fellow-countrymen ? Let them 
vindicate the fame of England from the foul stigma of such 
squalor as this. Or, if nothing but emancipating slaves will 
satisfy their rampant ardor ; if no home-made poverty, however 
terrible, can touch the romantic souls of Abolitionists ; if they 
have no delight but in bidding the captive look up and bear 
himself proudly — 

" Coblnmqne tneri 
Jussus, et erectos ad sideia toUere vultus" — 

why, then, let them turn their eyes eastward, and arrest the 
auctioneer's hammer at Constantinople, which consigns to 
bondage, not the swarthy, repulsive Negro, but the loveliest 
specimens of our own race, the fair Circassian ; and to what 
bondage, my Lord ? — not the wholesome labor of the cotton- 
field, but the bestial degradation of the Harem. 



The Resources of the South. 

It is not likely that your Lordship has ever had occasion to 
turn your attention to the natural resources of our Southern 
States ; but, at the present juncture, such an investigation pos- 
sesses peculiar interest. I shall not venture beyond the" most 
general outline, but shall not fail to say enough to show the 
immense mutual advantages the two great sections of our 
country have derived from their commercial union, which 
abstract questions and idle political contests seem destined to 
diminish, if not destroy. 

The original Colonies of this country were all possessed of 
slaves, as already stated ; and the industry of both sections was 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 63 

nearly the same, since the Imj^erial Governiuent prohibited 
manufactures in the Cohjnies. The North was more commer- 
cial ; its industry consisted chiefly, as mentioned, in curing and 
selling fish, and trading largely in Negroes for Southern con- 
sumption. The valleys of the Mohawk and the Hudson sup- 
plied some farm produce for export; and the South raised, 
principally, tobacco, indigo, and silk. All these employments 
were carried on, North and South, by slaves ; but none of them 
were very profitable, since they had but a restricted market 
for sale, and were obliged to make their purchases of goods 
from England. 

"When the present Union was formed, however, a new state 
of things arose. Manufactures were eagerly embarked in at 
the North, and the Federal Government adopted such means 
as it supposed would encourage them. The South continued 
its usual employments, viz. : the production of raw articles, of 
which tobacco was the principal, but which rapidly deterio- 
rated the land. 

There were in the Southern States, at this period, 657,047 
slaves, and at the North, 39,250. The number of the slaves 
was increasing by importation, wliile the profits of employing 
them were diminishing. In 1793, however, the invention of 
the Cotton-gin, as remarked, changed the face of the future. 
Up to that time, it required a hand a day to clean one pound 
of cotton from the seed, for market ; but the gin enabled one 
hand to clean 350 lbs. per day. From that moment the cotton 
culture began to attract the attention of planters ; and up to 
this day, it has not ceased to increase. The product, in 1800, 
was 1 bale for 24 slaves, and is now 1\ bales for 1 slave. At 
the same time, the value of other articles produced at the 
South has risen largely. Naval stores, rice, tobacco, and 
sugar have increased as well as cotton. The value of these 
five articles produced, in 1800, per head of all the slaves, was 
$16 j/er annum ; while in the present year it was $67 per head. 
At the same time, the quantity of food raised on the planta- 
tions is also greater. In later years, large planters have 
raised sufficient nearly to feed their Blacks ; while large quan- 



64 LKITER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

tities of food are now exported North. Virginia and Kentucky 
are the larijest corn-growing States of the Union. 

When the invention of the Cotton-gin made the culture of 
that article profitable, it attracted all classes of persons at the 
South. Retired merchants, professional men, as well as plant- 
er, invested in cotton lands, and put all their available means 
into that culture, which thus absorbed capital from all other 
pursuits. It followed from tliis, that the Blacks were concen- 
trated upon the cotton plantations at rising prices, which have 
gone up from $250 at the beginning of the century, to $1,500 
each good field-hand at the present time. It also resulted, 
from the inordinate pursuit of this single industry, that all 
others were checked ; and as the South increased in numbers 
and wealth from cotton, it became more and more dependent 
upon the North for its manufactures and goods. The large 
market thus oflfered to Northern industry, was a more eflfective 
encouragement to its domestic manufactures than any protec- 
tive measures the Federal Government could adopt. The 
North was not, however, contented with that advantage, but 
msisted upon a monopoly of the supply by an almost prohibi- 
tive duty, with a view to exclude English goods. The average, 
that was 7-^ per cent, in 1800, was raised successively in 1816, 
1824, and 1828, to 10 per cent. This being found excessive, it 
was reduced to 25 per cent., at which it continues. This rate 
is charged upon the proceeds of exports sold abroad, and re- 
turning into the country. The exports of merchandise from 
the United States, in 1859, were as follows: 

Merchandise of Southern origin $198,389,351 

" Northern " 78,217,202 

Total Merchandise exported $276,606,553 

rhis large amount, nearly $200,000,000, of Southern produce, 
may realize abroad, with freights and profits, some $225,000,000, 
for which goods are taken in return ; and the duty of 25 per 
cent, on these, amounts to $56,000,000, which may be regarded 
as a bounty on Northern manufactures as against those of 
England, whore the Southern products are mostly sold. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON". ^ 65 

That such a system should build up an immense manufac- 
turing interest at the North, was inevitable. The Federal 
census of 1850 gave the value of manufactures annually pro- 
duced, as follows : 

CAPITAL IN MANUFACTURES. PRODUCTION. 

North $488,249,677 $854,526,679 

South 94,995.674 164.579.937 



Total Manufactures ... .$533,245,351 $1,019,106,616 

The North also imports for the South, and the value of the 
whole charged to the South is enhanced in the ratio of the 
duty, viz., 25 per cent. The North may be said to take all the 
Southern products, and pay in goods at 25 per cent, advance 
over the English prices. 

The influx of emigrants from abroad, with large capital, 
aided that development. 

The financial operations of the agricultural South, where 
$300,000,000 worth of crops are annually moved to market, 
necessarily centred in New York, where the goods are mostly 
imported and Eastern manufactures are distributed. This fact 
will serve to explain the annual migration of Southern mer- 
chants to the North to make their purchases ; and with them 
often come their families, to visit the fashionable w\at<3ring- 
places, where also many of the wealthy Southern planters 
spend their summers. New York has also become the chief 
point of connection with Europe, and therefore all Southern 
travellers come there to embark. These various causes draw a 
large Southern expenditure to the North, which is not in any 
way reciprocated. 

All the operations of Finance, Banking, Insurance, Broker- 
age, Commissions, Profits on Imports and on Domestic Manu- 
factures, &c., inure to the North, on the basis of the agriculture 
of the South. These items have been estimated at an aggregate 
of $231,000,000 per annum, drawn for Northern account from 
Soutiiern industry. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise 
that the North has accumulated wealth much faster than the 
South. But it is a matter of surprise that the North, under 

5 



Q6 LETIER TO LORD PALMER8T0N. 

these circumstances, should upbraid the South with her com- 
parative poverty. 

T/ie North thus reaps the whole of the profits of Slave lahor. 

I am sure it must sti'ike your Lordship witli amazement, that 
when the North, by its superior activity and commercial 
sagacity, was thus reaping such enormous advantage from the 
products of the Slave States of tlie South, they should allow 
themselves to fall a prey to fanatics and excited partisans. An 
English statesman, above all others, must be perplexed, and 
incredulous of such facts ; for, to the eternal honor of Iiritish 
politics, nmst it be said that the national good is never for an 
instant endangered by schemes of personal aggrandizement. 

The result of these constant attacks of Northern fanaticism, 
have not onlj' irritated the South, but forced them to pay more 
attention to their interest than heretofore. They begin to feel 
a desire to keep at home at least a portion of the capital pro- 
duced there, and with it employ the poorer white population 
of the " Border States," where Slave labor is not profitable, 
since it is not a cotton region. They are disposed, of late, \\) 
commence developing those manufactures for which they have 
hitherto been dependent on the North. 

The North takes of the South 750,000 bales of cotton, worth 
$50,000,000, per annum ;. which it works np into cotton goods, 
to send back to the South. That quantity of cotton will make 
1,035,000,000 yards of cotton cloth, for which $100,000,000 
is charged ; but England will sell the same quantity for 
$75,000,000, and if the South makes it herself, it may be done 
for $60,000,000. Southern economists see that to make this 
great saving, nothing else is necessary than to keep at home 
the capital now drained off to the North. The Abolitionists of 
New England have driven tlie South into these calculations, 
and thus it is her own children conspiring her ruin. 

One word more of the self-sustaining resources of the South, 
which I extract from a Northern journal. I give it without 
comment. 

"The Southern States, including Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, 
North Carolina, and most of South Carolina, are the finest grain-growing 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTOX. 



67 



countries in the world ; and were not cotton, tobacco, and rice more profit- 
able, those States miglit export corn, wheat, afld other cereals in large quan- 
tities. The slopes of the Alleghanies on both sides are as fertile and as well 
suited for the production of breadstuflfs of all kinds, as any lands in the 
country. They are covered with beautiful farms, the soil and the climate 
are alike fovorable, and it is the height of absurdity to talk of the poverty 
of the Southern States. To some extent at present they cultivate other 
crops, which they exchange for food, because they can do so with advantage 
to themselves ; but throw them on their own resources, and cut them off 
from Northern and Western supplies, and they can produce not only enough 
for themselves, but compete with the North in exportation, to the serious 
damage of its interests. 

"In the interior of the Southern States almost every description of food 
abounds, and is far cheaper than in the Northern and Eastern States. It is 
only a strip of the seaboard that forms the exception to the rule, and there 
the production of cotton and rice amply compensates for the deficiency of 
the cereals. It is only because the conveyance by sea of food to the South- 
ern ports from the North is cheaper than the carriage by railroad from the 
interior of the Southern States, that wheat, corn, and other grain are shipped 
to any extent from the North in exchange for cotton, tobacco, and rice. But 
if the policy of non-intercourse should prevail, the demand at the Southern 
seaboard would soon produce the necessary supply from the interior. In 
the event of secession and separate confederacies, however, the North would 
only be too glad to send its surplus food to the seaports of the South for 
cash, or for those productions of the South which the North does not yield, 
and which are better than gold to the Northern States. To use a homely 
proverb, the North will not always cut off its nose to vex its face, as it is 
now doing; and the great danger will be, that the South will wholly with- 
draw its trade and its exchanges from the North, and transfer them to Eng- 
land, France, and other European countries. 

"But, after all, it is a very small proportion of the breadstuffs and other 
food consumed by the Southern seaboard that comes from the North. For 
instance. Mobile derives its chief supplies from New Orleans — one of the 
cheapest markets in the United States. According to the most recent quo- 
tations, the prices at New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, and New York, 
compare thus : — 





New Orleans, 
Nov. 21. 


Savannah, 
Nov. 23. 


Charleston, 
Nov. 23. 


Neio York, 
Nov. 28. 


Flour 


14 50 @ 7 50 

1 25 @ 1 60 

63 @ 72 

1 00 @ 1 50 

12 @ 14 

10 @ 15 

9 @ 12i 

1 00 @ 3 00 


6 00 @ 7 50 

75 @ 85 
1 50 — 
13 — 
15 @ 28 
10 ® IS 
1 00 @ 2 25 


6 00 @ 7 50 

65 @ a5 
1 50 @ 2 00 
12* @ 13 
15 @ 28 
10 @ 13 


4 85 @ 7 25 

1 10 @ 1 43 
65i @ 68i 

1 50 @ 2 00 

9i @ 10 

14 @ 20 

10 @ 11 

1 87 @ 1 50 


Wheat 




Potatoes 


Butter 




Apples 





" Here, then, it will be seen that the average cost of these essential articles 
of food, is less at New Orleans than it is at New York ; and from New Or- 
leans, which is supplied by the Mississippi, all parts of the cotton Gulf States 



6S ' r.JcrrKK ro lord palmerston. 

are access! hlo either by water or by railroad. The Atlantic Cotton States 
are also connected with the ^interior Southern States, both by water and 
railroad coninuinicatiou. At Charleston, it will be observed, corn is nearly 
as cheap as at New York ; and at Savannah, notwithstanding the short crop, 
owing to drought, the price is very little higher than at the great emporium 
of the North, where almost daily sales of North Carolina corn and wheat 
contribute to keep down the prices. Thus the whole argument founded on 
the power of the North to starve the South, vanishes into thin air, and. 'like 
the baseless fabric of a vision, leaves not a wreck behind.' 

"Then, the South produces food of better quality than the North. South- 
ern flour, for instance, commands the highest price in the market of New 
York. The average daily sales of Southern flour in this market are from 
1,200 to 1,500 barrels; and if w& take into account the quantity of Hour 
and other breadstuffs sent here from Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, North Carolina, and other Slave States, perhaps the balance against 
the South on the score of food would be exceedingly small. 

"The South, moreover, excels the North in its water-power, and teems 
with coal and other minerals. It has cheaper labor and a better climate, 
and therefore can successfully compete with the North in manufactures. 
Owing to the mildness of the weather in winter, its factories can work aW 
the year round ; and the South requires less clothing and less fuel for its 
population (two main items in the expenditure of the Northern mechanic), 
and therefore a higher degree of comfort can be* obtained for the same labor 
at the South than at the North." 



General View. 

the northern states. 

I should but ill discharge the task I have assumed, my Lord, 
if I did not convey in the most candid language the impres- 
sions made upon me by passing events. None but an eye- 
witness of the struggle that has so suddenly come upon its can 
form any adequate notion of its extent or duration, Tlie vital 
apprehension that becomes more imminent with every succeed- 
ing phase of the conflict is, that the Confederacy is in danger. 
There is no disguising the fact that this sad contingency stares 
us in the face. It may still be averted, and that solemn re- 
sponsibility rests upon the States of the North. It is tlieir act 
tliat this phantom of Disunion has been conjured up, and upon 
them alone devolves the effort to exorcise it. Do they ap- 
preciate the danger? Alas! I fear not. Do they value the 



LETfER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. 69 

Union? It is their chief reliance. Why, then, have they 
Staked its existence so wantonly? Allow me to save your 
Lordship from this prevalent fallacy. In the late Presidential 
election, the Northern States, it is true, threw their electoral 
vote for the candidate of the Anti-slavery party, but it turns 
out on analysis that far more than one-half of the popular 
vote is against him. 

It appears that the President elect received but 1,864,000 
out of a suifrage of 4,710,548, leaving a balance recorded 
against him of 2,846,548. It follows, then, from our defective 
political machinery we shall have a President in office who is 
the representative of the minority, which is' at variance with 
the very organic law of our institutions, the law of the ma- 
jority. This incredible fact must absolve a portion of the peo- 
ple of the Northern States from the parricidal folly of seeking 
to pull down the pillars of their political temple. But I am 
not the less convinced that the Northern minority who elected 
Mr. Lincoln never contemplated for a moment that they were 
applying a torch to their own dwellings. Their ruling motive 
was, simply, to give a conge to the party in power, who had 
held it for eight years, and whose term they proposed to ter- 
minate. They may have had some vague notions on the sub- 
ject of slavery. They may have desired not to see it extend 
into the unsettled Territories, without stopping to reflect what 
means, if any, could be employed to prevent it. They never 
imagined, for an instant, that in voting for the " Black Repub- 
lican" candidate, they were signing the death-warrant of the 
Confederacy. The proof, my Lord, that I am an honest inter- 
preter of their sentiments will be seen in their future action. 
"When the startling truth breaks upon them that, uncon- 
sciously, they have brought the Confederacy to the very verge 
of an abyss, where revolution and anarchy await them, they 
will shrink back dumb with amazement and horror. Woe, 
then, to the false guides who have brought them to such a 
pass. Upon what data do I found this prediction? First, 
upon the fact that these people of the North are intelligent 
and practical ; understanding their interests, and cleaving to 



70 LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

them at all hazards. Xext, their views upon the condition of 
our Southern Blacks are loose and unsettled. Their feelings 
have been played upon, but their convictions have not been 
reached. They will make no sacrifices, therefore, that, on re- 
tlection, achieve no good, and involve enormous loss. Finally, 
patriotism is not extinct in the heart of the Northern States. 
"It is not dead, but only sleepeth." A love of our nationality, 
cemented by the blood of our forefathers, and consecrated by 
the dying benediction of Washington — clarum et venerabile 
nomen — is still latent in their breasts, and when the occasion 
comes, will burst forth with electrical effect. Should it turn 
out otherwise, my Lord, — should these people of the North, 
reflective, educated, and experienced, wantonly throw into 
the seething caldron of Revolution the blessings of eighty 
years of unexampled prosperity, — then may the monarchies of 
the old world rejoice, for self-government is but a snare and a 
delusion. 

One word more of the Abolition party of the United States. 
They are reall}" insignificant in numbers, and will be swallowed 
up in the returning waves of reason. The leaders of this 
party, who affect to believe in the social and political equality 
of the White and Black races, are made up of that class who 
are commonly known as fanatics — a kind of moral lunatics, 
who strike at all who dispute their grotesque illusions. These 
worshippers of abstract questions, whom Napoleon stigmatized 
as "Ideologues," are foes to the peace and welfare of every 
community, and should be jealously watched and rigidly re- 
strained. It is an extraordinary fact, and worthy your Lord- 
ship's attention, that the monopoly of these intellectual fungi 
is enjoyed by a particular locality in this country, where they 
seem indigenous to the soil. The State of Massachusetts is 
not only the head-quarters of Abolition, but it is the hotbed of 
every kind of chimera in religion, politics, and morals. Can 
your Lordship credit the fact that a man assuming the title of 
Reverend" should have devoted every Sabbath in the city of 

♦ The late Kev. Theodore Parker. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. Yl 

Boston to blasphemous attacks on the Christian Religion, 
M'hile palpitating crowds of men and women flocked after his 
sacrilegious eloquence ! Is it not equally incredible that a man 
of education and fortune,* a citizen of Boston, should habitu- 
ally denounce the Constitution of his country, declaring that 
it is " a league with hell, and a covenant with death." Not 
less marvellous are the attempts so frequently made in Massa- 
chusetts to organize " Communities of Free Love," where the 
promiscuous intercourse of the sexes is the corner-stone of the 
social edifice. If these be the revolting metaphysics of the 
Abolitionists of Massachusetts — if this be the religion, tlie poli- 
tics, and the morals they would instil into the minds of the 
Southern Blacks, far better leave them in harmless ignorance. 
That Massachusetts is distinguished by its profound skepticism 
of all authority, divine and human, is undeniable, and your 
Lordship can hardly imagine the reason assigned for it by the 
thinkins: men anions^ them. Tliev attribute it to excess of 
iNTKLLECTUAL CULTURE ! — which Only veHfies the saying, that 
" human knowledge is the parent of doubt." Let the far-famed 
"schoolmaster abroad" resolve this startling problem — tliat 
universal education in Massachusetts has brought forth 
Preachers of Infidelity in Religion, Professors of a " Higher 
Law" than the Constitution in Politics, and Practical Expo- 
nents of the works of St. Simon and Fourier.f This mental 
licentiousness was characteristic of the worst period of the first 

* Wendell Phillips, Esq. 

t In corroboration of the above is the following extract from a Northern journal : 
" The people of Massachusetts were very recently warned by one of her own states- 
raen and orators that ' Yankees are not popular in the Middle any more than in the 
Southern States.' He told them that their ' disestimation in the Middle States' was 
universal, and assured them that there was ' a project much thought of, as well in the 
other non-slaveliolding as in the slaveholding States, to reconstitute the Union, ex- 
cluding New England from it.' Union men of New England are beginning to hold 
up this truth to each other, together with a daguerreotype of the provincial mean- 
ness, bigotry, self-conceit, love for ' isms,' hypercritical opposition to any thing and 
every thing, universal fault-finding, hard-bargaining, and systematic home lawless- 
ness and nullification, while denouncing, as worthy of hanging, counter-nullification 
in others, which are covering their section of the country with odium, and creating 
the wish elsewhei'e to relieve the Confederation of the burden by its excision at an7 
cost." 



72 LlilTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 

French Kevolution, and is entirely incompatible with good 
order everywhere. 

SOUTHERN STATES. 

Before this couuuunieution reaches your Lordship, many of 
our Southern States will have ceased to be members of the 
late Confederacy, whose brilliant career has inspired so much 
panegyi'ic, and awakened so many hopes. This solemn event 
will startle England, and she will deprecate now what only 
forty years ago she would have rejoiced at. Your Lordship 
may think the step premature and uncalled-for, but when tlie 
facts I have related are properl}^ weighed, the conclusion 
must be diiferent. The Southern States have been for nearly 
sixty years the object of political persecution by the North, 
which tiiey have borne with patience and returned with kind- 
ness.* In 1820 the North entered into a compromise, Mhich 
has been broken. Li 1850 they made new agreements, which 
have since been violated. In 1860 a legal majority elect a 
President on the "Platform" that "Slavery must be restricted 
to its present limits." Wounded in their dignity, outraged in 
their rights, and threatened in their interests, what course is 
left the South? To fold their arms and await more injury and 
endure more obloquy ? Would this check the aggressions of 
the North, or only encourage them till both North and South 
were swallowed up in the same vortex of ruin. It is clear, my 
Lord, that the South have no alternative. Far better they 
should abandon the Confederacy than remain only to engage 
in bitter feuds that compromise the dignity of the country, and 
sow the seeds of undying hatred. 

The secession of tlie united South will calm the passions of 
the North and awaken its reason. Reflection will bring re- 
pentance, and the South, true to her chivalric nature and gen- 
erous instincts, will not turn a deaf ear to offers of manly 
reparation. I, for one, do not despair of such a result. 

The right of secession it is idle to discuss with the South. 

* Witness Mr. Calhoun's conduct in 1S16. 



LETTEK TO LORD PALMEESTON. 73 

In 1789, according to her view, she entered into a civil com- 
pact with the ISTorth, on certain conditions and guaranties. 
These have been broken, and the South returns, in her opinion, 
to her original sovereignty.* Even were it otherwise,— were it 
true that the South owed alleo-iance to the Federal govern- 
ment, — still, she asserts, our own Declaration of Independence 
in 1776, and the present practice of Europe, justify all people 
in repudiating a government which assails their rights and sac- 
rifices their best interests. If the Northern States do not 
acknowledge these truths, exclaims the South, then are they 
false to their origin, and seek to substitute for a government 
of opinion the tyranny of force. That the South will adhere 
to its right of secession at all hazards, and at every sacrifice, is 
clear to me, for her interests demand it. That the North will 
shrink from an armed attempt to contest it, is equally plain, 
for her interests forbid it. To suppose that out of deference 
for a mere abstraction — the exclusive right to savage territo- 
ries — the Northern States will destroy their commerce, ruin 
their finances, and desolate their homes, by plunging into the 
fiery furnace of a civil war, is beyond all imagination. Should 
this event occur, — should force, and not reason, be the bloody 
arbitrament in this crisis of our history, — then, I say again, let 
Despotism hurl its cap in the air, for self-government is only a 
stupendous sham ! ^ 

* This principle of sovereignty was repeatedly asserted by New England during 
the last war, and on January 4, 1815, a report of a committee was made in the Hart- 
ford Convention, in favor of ijumediate secession from the Cnion, on the plea that 
the Constitution had been violated by the Embargo Act, and the ordering of the 
militia into the service of the United States. The report defended the right of seces- 
sion as follows : 

"That Acts of Congress, in violation of the Constitution, are absolutely/ void, is an 

undeniable position But in cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable 

infractions of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and liberties of the 
people, it is not only the right but the duty of such State to interpose its authority for 
their protection, in the manner best calculated to secure that end. When emergencies 
occur which are either beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too pressing to 
admit of the delay incident to their forms, .States which have no common umpire must 
be their own judges and execute their own decisions. The States should so use their 
power as effectually to protect their own sovereignty and the rights and liberties of 
their citizens." 



74r LKTTEll TO LORD I'ALMHliSTON. 

Bat should a war ensue between tlie North and South, I can 
foresee no result so certain as the intervention of England, per- 
haps of France. To both these nations, and especially to the 
first, is the Southern staple of cotton indispensable. The sup- 
ply must be steady and full, else the factories of Great Britain 
would be paralyzed. To save this ti-ade from the eventualities 
of a civil war, England must interfere either as an umpire or 
as an ally of the South. The negrophobia of British fanaticism 
or of British philanthropy will vanish, I venture to predict, be- 
fore the stern reality of a loss, or even a diminution of the cot- 
ton crop. Should the infatuation of the North drive the Euro- 
pean Powers to throw the sword of Brennus into the trem- 
bling scale, then a Southern Confederacy, with "Free Trade" 
for its motto, would soon become a fait accompli^ and the fac- 
tories of New England would serve but as monuments to re- 
cord her folly and her ruin. 

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 

If my aspirations are realized, my Lord, and the North 
should manifest a disposition to abandon dogmas and yield to 
reason, then amendments to our Constitution must follow. 
The histories of England, the oldest constitutional country of 
the world, and that of France, furnish ample precedents; but 
unfortunately in nearly all these cases the blind bigotry of 
party rendered force the medium of reform. 

I cannot but believe that the wisdom of our people will 
afford a nobler example. Should the revision of our Constitu- 
tion ensue, the South will demand a final settlement of the 
Negro question. It will be a hap})y day for the ])eace of the 
country and the condition of the Blades, when this wearisome 
dispute is withdrawn forever from the arena of party politics. 

Yet, there will still remain other modifications hardly less 
important. When the present Constitution was adopted, the 
population of the United States consisted of some four millions, 
which was pretty equally divided between North and South. 
Natural increase and immigration have swelled the popular 



LETTER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. . ^5 

vote of the North so rapidly, that its permanent preponder- 
ance over the Federal Government is fully established by the 
census of 1860. This was never contemplated by the Fathei-s 
of the Eepublic, else it would have been provided for, since 
nothing is more manifest than their desire to effect a perfect 
equality of the rights and privileges of all the States. It was 
intended by the Constitution that the South should always 
have an equal share in the Federal legislation, and that no 
numerical disparity should confer undue advantage on the 
North. The purpose of our political architects to preserve 
equality is shown in the organization of the Senate, where the 
smallest State of the North wields the same influence witli the 
most populous State of the South.* In the House of Repre- 
sentatives the same just balance was sought. 

If from force of circumstances as well as from natural causes 
the provisions of our early statesmen have failed, ■ and the 
North have obtained a physical ascendency over the South, it 
follows that this accidental inequality must be rectified. To 
desire that the South should deposit forever the Federal gov- 
ernment in the hands of the North is unjust. To expect they 
would consent to do it is absurd. To contend the South has 
no right to equality in the Federal government is preposterous. 
To sustain that view by force is tyranny. The Constitution 
must, then, be modified to suit the new exigencies of our polit- 
ical history, else the South have a double inducement to aban- 
don the Confederacy. 

But, should another Constituent Assembly ever meet to re- 
adjust our political equilibrium, somewhat disturbed by time 
and events, many grave questions may be mooted. It is clear 
that in some essentials our Magna Charta was better adapted 
to our early condition, than now. From a country chiefly 
agricultural, we have become almost the first manufacturing 
and commercial nation in the world. These vast interests are 
the very nerves of every trading community, and are keenly 
sensitive, as they are vital. Their vigor and growth depend on 

* Each State sends two members to the Senate. Each member of the lower houso 
represents the same ratio of popidation. 



76 LKTTER TO LORD PALMEKSTON. 

the stability of governmeut and the tranquillity of society. It 
is notorious that our commercial world is seriously disturbed 
by the frequency of our elections — comprising Municipal, 
State, and Federal — which involve both disorder and uncer- 
tainty. Above all, the Presidential election, coming every 
four years, and bringing with it, perhaps, an entire change of 
policy, both domestic and foreign, is found to be more and 
more detrimental. 

From careful observation I should say, my Lord, that if the 
people of tliis country, more especially of the Xorth, were to 
give their conscientious opinion as to the incessant exercise of 
the elective franchise, they would pronounce it inconvenient 
and hurtful. The proof of this is the small proportion, in most 
of our elections, of the vote to the population, which shows 
indifference to the franchise. The consequence of this neglect 
is, that o^ir public affairs are falling steadily into the hands of 
a class of professional politicians, who control the political 
machine, and work it naturally more for their own advantage 
than that of the communit}'.* It appears to me that Self- 
government in the United States at this day, where all, from 
the lowest to the topmost round, are engaged in lucrative em- 
ployment, is found to be, in its present form, both troublesome 
and costly. 

* A singular confirmation of this fact is to be found in the new Constitution of the 
State of New York, which dates from 1846. Among other reforms introduced, was 
that of taking from the Governor the appointment of his Executive Council, such as 
the Attorney-general, Comptroller of the State, &c., and making these offices elec- 
tive. The consequence of these officials being independent of the Governor, is not 
only to render him a nullity, but to divide responsibility, always dangerous. Another 
result is the probable election of individuals incapable of discharging their functions 
properly, which could not occur if the Governor were responsible. The object of 
throwing all these appointments into the hands of the people, .however, is achieved ; 
for the eml)arrassment of a choice is so great that the political managers control the 
nominations, and put their own men in office. The example set by Xew York has 
been imitated, and our new State Constitutions are gradually losing the balance neces- 
sary to their preservation. For the first time iu history, the statesmen of 1789 suc- 
ceeded in combining, in wonderful harmony, the three great elements of all perfect 
political Constitutions, whose especial virtues are Unity, Conservatism, and Profjress. 
By increasing the power of the franchise, our modern tinkerers are destroying the 
requisite equilibrium, and the consequences must be serious. It was the new Consti- 
tution of New York that made the Judiciary elective, a most dangerous innovation. 



LE'ITKR ro LORD PALMKKSTON. 77 

France has her Self-government. The present Empire is 
founded on universal suftVage. Yet, rather than have the 
peace of society compromised by adopting our quadrennial 
election, and thus disturbing commercial operations, and en- 
dangering the precarious gains of the artisan and the operative, 
the middle and laboring classes of France voted by millions, 
in 1852, for an Hereditary Executive, a Senate for life, and a 
House of Representatives {corps Ugi&iatif) for five years. 
Such institutions guarantee stability, which, in a country so 
populous as France, is the prime requisite of her active and 
industrious population. 

England has also her form of Self-government, consisting of 
an Hereditary Executive, an Upper House, also hereditary, 
and a Lower House for seven years. I consider it no misnomer 
to apply the term of Self-government to the British system ; 
for the House of Connuons is elected by the intelligent middle 
class — a wise restriction, as we think here — and the Ministry is 
created, or deposed, solely by the vote of that House, without 
the co-operation of the co-ordinate branches of the government, 
viz., the Executive and Upper House. This is virtually Self- 
government. 

Either of these systems has an immense practical advantage 
over ours, so far as the tranquillity of the community, the secu- 
rity of property, and, above all, the necessities of trade and 
commerce depend. Such, indeed, are the losses and derange- 
ment of business, with us the vital cord, attendant more and 
more on our Presidential elections, that I do believe, my Lord, 
if the people of the United States could find a man on whose 
sense and integrity they might rely, they would gladly elect 
him for a lengthened period, and rejoice they had escaped the 
necessity and the risk of exercising the overrated privilege of 
the franchise. My presumption is, therefore, that in case of a 
Convention for the amendment of our Federal Chart, efforts 
will be made, first, to render tlie President ineligible, and next, 
to extend his term to eight or ten years. An additional neces- 
sity for this is the fact that the Secretaries for the various 
departments, who come in with the new President, have 



78 LETTER TO LORD PALMER8T0N. 

hardly time, in four years, to know their business, vastly in- 
creased since 1789 ; and, consequently, the Government is too 
much in the hands of Clerks acquainted with the routine. 
This might be amended by creating, as in England, permanent 
Assistant-secretaries of State, more capable and more responsi- 
ble than simple Clerks. 

I doubt not the commercial world, from high to low, would 
gladly indorse such modifications. It is fast becoming the 
settled conviction of this country, that the franchise has been 
forced beyond its true boundary. For instance, an elective 
Judiciary in several of our States is ruining the Bench, for the 
ablest lawyers will not abandon their practice for the ermine 
which may be stripped at any moment from their shouldere. 
The people besides, it would seem to me, are weary of the in- 
cessant demands of the franchise on their time ; for, beyond 
question, they neglect it, while all interested in property and 
government, as all are in this country, dread its uncertain 
action more and more. 

In short, my Lord, we have experimented in government 
till all classes begin to feel the necessity of retracing our steps, 
and of coming back to those limits our sagacious forefathers 
assigned to us. 



The American Press. 

I have trespassed at such length on your Lordship's atten- 
tion, that I will limit my concluding remarks to the narrow- 
est space ; but I consider it pertinent to glance for a moment 
at the connection between our Press and the present state of 
the country. It is thought in Europe, from the freedom of our 
institutions, that the Press of the United States has an un- 
bounded license and irresistible influence. There is much fal- 
lacy in this. Our Press is not under tJie check of law, as in 
France, nor of conventional usage, as in England, but the re- 
straint of public opinion here is as stringent as either. It is 
singular that the character and condition of the Daily Press of 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 79 

the three leading nations of the world should be so unlike. To 
make myself better understood, may I venture to say a word 
or two of the French and English Press, however familiar to 
your Lordship, in order to make the contrast to our own more 
complete. 

In France the Press is a political power; in England, a 
moral power; in the United States, chiefly, so to speak, a com- 
mercial power. In France there are three, if not four, parties 
struggling against each other for power — two Monarchical, the 
Legitimist and Orleanist ; two Democratic, the Republican and 
Socialist. The Napoleon Dynasty stands aloof from these, 
and represents the Nation, its sentiments and interests. Each 
party has its organs, but the national cause may be said to 
have no representation in the Press. It is natural that when 
the prize contended for is the possession of the government, 
the journals of France should be animated with a boundless 
ardor. They work with hearty unanimity against the occu- 
pant of power, but each hopes, in the scramble, on his over- 
throw to secure the" vacant post. The Press of France is, 
therefore, more revolutionary than partisan. It was the united 
Press which undermined the Legitimist throne of Charles X. 
in 1830, and to the disappointment of many of them, it was the 
Orleanist branch which carried off the trophy. Again, it was 
the united Press which sapped the Orleanist Monarchy in 
1848, and to the surprise of all of them, the Republican Party 
sprung into the empty chair. Once more they combined and 
worked for the restoration of monarchy. It came in 1852, but 
not the one they had anticipated. It is manifest, then, that 
the tranquillity of society in France is utterly at the mercy of 
the Press, whose daily task is to assail the existing Govern- 
ment. It was an immense benefit, therefore, to the trading 
and commercial interests when Napoleon IIL put a check on 
the excesses of Paris journalism. A free Press in France sim- 
ply means the privilege of each party to do its best to effect a 
Revolution. Until these parties and their journals disappear, 
there is no hope for permanent order. A constitutional gov- 
ernment and unrestricted Press, as understood in England and 



80 LITTER TO LnUD PALMKUSTON. 

this cH)Uiitry, is impossible for the present in France. The 
governiueiit of Napoleon has only maintained itself by piuting 
a muzzle on both the politicians and the journals. Had he 
alh'wed them free scope, he would have been in exile bt'fore 
this, and France would have lost the vast benefits of his 
reii^n. It has been much the fashion, my Lord, for the English 
Press to mourn over the condition of French journalism, and 
abuse Napoleon for trammelling it. This must be ignorance 
of the stern necessity, or a desire to see France a prey to 
anarchy. The Emperor has recently modified his system of 
restraint. It is a dangerous experiment, and it will end by at- 
tempts against his dynasty, or the cancelling of his concessions. 
Tlie o-reatest French journalist of the day, Emile de Girardin, 
once said to me that, " with a single journal, perfectly free, he 
could overthrow any government in the world." The remark 
is a striking one, and shows that in our day, my Lord, govern- 
ments, and even society itself, has a new and formidable ele- 
ment to deal with. A mere Party Press like that of France is 
any thing but an advantage to the country. It may be re- 
garded, on the other hand, as little less than a nuisance, re- 
quii'ing frequent abatement. 

It is no idle compliment to the Press of England to say that 
it has raised journalism to the rank it occupies in modern 
times. Its consummate ability, its variety of intelligence, and 
lofty tone, have together made it not only a lever in politics, 
but an arbiter in society. It has come to be not inaptly 
termed " the fourth estate of the Realm." It is not so much 
in intellect that the English Press surpasses the French, it 
strikes me, my Lord, but more in that moderation of opinion 
and sobriety of language which imparts force and dignity to 
journals as well as men. This may be attributed in some de- 
crree to the absence of those fierce party passions which ebb 
and flow in France, and also to the salutary influence of the 
Aristocracy on numners, but more than all to the character of 
the people themselves, which is not mercurial like the French, 
nor impulsive like the American, but subdued and reserved. 
It follows, then, that a journal which aspires to influence or 



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON. 81 

profit in England, must be what is there called "respectable;" 
that is, scrupulous in its statements and careful in its language. 
During nearly the whole of this century the journalism of 
England has been of a partisan character, and has been di- 
vided in its support of one or the other of the two great parties, 
Whig and Tory, into which the Aristocracy was ranged. Thus, 
the Tory Press has maintained the prerogatives of government, 
while tlie Whig journals have contended for an increase of 
popular liberty. In the course of years it came to pass that 
the Tory party, having yielded every thing, disappeared alto- 
gether; while the Whig party, having gained every thing, 
likewise disappeared. It seems to me, that at the present day 
political parties have ceased to exist in England, for want of a 
pretext. The Aristocracy are ready to concede every rational 
demand, while the Middle Class, which regulates the Lower 
Class, appears to have nothing to ask. The consequence is, 
the Press has been obliged to find other interests to represent, 
and it has become in a great degree a class Press, addressed 
to the pursuits and tastes of various classes and callings. The 
great champions of Wliig and Tory principles have either van- 
ished entirely, or shrunk into small proportions; while the 
community is deluged with journals — Literary, Medical, Legal, 
Clerical, Artistic, and Scientific, to say nothing of the Illus- 
trated tribe which caters for the sense as well as the mind. 

From the decadence of party organs in England has arisen 
a new and commanding feature of journalism, the Independent 
Press. This modern wonder not only disowns party allegi- 
ance, but repudiates any bias for class interests, aspiring to 
the nobler and more difficult mission of defendino- the arood 
of all against the encroachments of any. It discusses not only 
the interests of classes and individuals with magisterial au- 
thority, but it presumes to pronounce on the conduct of gov- 
ernments, and even to arbitrate on the conflicting claims of 
nations. Truly, my Lord, this is a phenomenon which cannot 
but excite in almost an equal degree curiosity and interest, not 
unmingled with apprehension. This new power stands alone 
in Europe. To England belongs the distinction of its origin. 



82 LETTER TO LORD PALitERSTON. 

Ill fact, a, journal like the London Times would be impossible 
anywhere else, for in no country does the public good at this 
day take such marked precedence over all other interests. The 
Times by a rare felicity has become the acknowledged cham- 
pion of the national cause both at home and abroad, and it 
brings to its high task a depth of erudition, a grace and vigor 
of style, and, beyond all, a sagacious comprehension of English 
interests to be found only in the writings of a Burke, or the 
speeches of a Gladstone. It is a proud position for any journal 
to occupy, but a responsible one, and the Times gives it due 
heed. There are influences in England, dear to the nation, 
that watch it jealously. A mistake in judgment, or a par- 
tiality for private interests, would be fatal to its ascendency. 
Before pronouncing on. a great question, domestic or foreign, 
the Times weighs anxiously its bearings on the national wel- 
fare, and then speaks with boldness and authority. In circula- 
tion it is outstripped by many obscure journals, but its moral 
power is unquestioned. IN'or does it neglect any means of in- 
fluence, for its information on every subject, from every quar- 
ter of the globe, surpasses in accuracy and celerity every other 
channel. An organ of opinion like this is a blessing to any 
country ; for wdiile it checks the aberrations of government, it 
removes from its path those cunning obstructions so often de- 
vised by the ambition of unprincipled men. 

It may appear presumptuous to your Lordship that I should 
touch on so familiar a theme as the English Press, but it may 
not be without interest to see in what light it is regarded by a 
foreigner. 

Our Press, as I have said, offers few points of resemblance 
to the French or English. A sprightly French writer has de- 
scribed it as not an apostolat so much as a comptoir ; as less a 
tribune than an affiohe. In other words, that its vocation is 
not to preach, but to assist trade ; that it is not a pedestal for 
orators, but a place for advertisements. This is in some meas- 
ure true. The prime mission of this country is the develop- 
ment of trade and commerce, and the Press derives its chief 
support from ministering to this universal thirst for acquisition. 



LETTER TO LORD PALMEESTON. 83 

The best criterion of the popularity of a journal in this coun- 
try is the number of its advertisements; and to preserve them, 
it must regulate its course by the interests of the business com- 
munity. All other considerations are subordinate. For this 
reason it may be perceived that our Press is perhaps less inde- 
pendent than that of England or France ; for in the former its 
revenue is derived chiefly from circulation, the price being 
more remunerative than with ns, while in the latter country it 
is sustained by party or government patronage ; and conse- 
quently, an English or French journal, apart from the par- 
ticular interest it advocates, is free and bold in its opinions. 
Again : I have no hesitation in saying that our Press has less 
influence over the public mind than in England or France ; 
first, because it is not called upon to defend those conflicting 
j)olitical principles which grow out of the contention in Europe 
between royal prerogative and popular privilege, but chiefly 
because all classes with us are generally better instructed, and 
certainly more independent in mind and character; consc; 
quently our Press rarely seeks to guide, still less to dictate to 
public opinion. It is a far easier and safer role to follow in 
the beaten track of party lines, or to indorse on general sub- 
jects the expression of popular opinion. 

It is a conclusive proof of the prevalence of Anti-slavery 
sentiment at the North at the present time, that the vast ma- 
jority of the journals of this section are found in the ranks of 
the " Eepublicans." It may well be doubted if the convictions 
of all our public writers coincide with the opinions they deem 
it expedient to express, but it is an incontestable sign of the 
dominant pressure of the public mind in this country, that 
our Northern Press should so universally echo the views most 
acceptable in this latitude. There is but one journal at this 
ominous crisis that has courageously ventured to speak in the 
solemn voice of warning to the North, and to remind it that in 
yielding to a sentiment, or in gratifying an ambition, it runs 
the fearful risk of sacrificing its most solid interests. All 
honor is due to the Nev) York Eerald for its manly, judicious, 
and patriotic course. It has rightly understood that its allegi- 



84 LETTEK TO LOUD PALMKRSTON. 

ance to tlie great commercial community it represents, is best 
maintained by urging on the North, with incomparable tact and 
ability, to obey its judgment, and not abandon itself to impulse, 
— to make those just concessions which the occasion as well 
as duty demand. It is a bold and perilous act in a journalist, at 
a moment when sectional feeling runs mountain high, to appeal, 
even in whispers, to the " still, small voice" of reason ; but the 
Herald has not shrunk from its self-imposed task. Before the 
election of November, and since, it has not failed for a single 
day to beat the alarm-drum, and announce to its multitudinous 
readers that the country was in danger. Identitied with no 
party, shackled by no influence, it has no interest but the 
prosperity of our flourishing metropolis, and can have no ob- 
ject but the supreme good of our common country. Can it be 
that all its eflforts are vain, and that its valiant struggles to 
perpetuate the Union of these States cannot retard the decree 
which dooms them to dismemberment ! How many will de- 
plore this grave calamity ! How many will exclaim hereafter 

" This might have been prevented, and made whole 
With very easy Arguments of Love !" 

But should it be so ordained, then, there is not a lover of this 
country, not a friend of humanity, but will join in the eloquent 
and touching invocation your Lordship so recently uttered — 
"Whether that Union is destined to remain unimpaired, or 
whether those States are determined to separate into difi*erent 
communities, our present prayer is that the result may be 
brought about by amicable means. Be it for maintaining the 
Union, or be it for dissolving the Union, may the world be 
spared the afflicting spectacle of a hostile conflict between 
brothers and brothers."* 

I have the honor to remain. 

Your Lordship's very humble servant, 

Henry Wikoff. 

* Extract from Lord Piihnerstoii's speech at Southampton, January 8, ISGl. 



LhJe'07 



// 



